cereal technology development- west african semi-arid tropics
TRANSCRIPT
CEREAL TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT-WEST AFRICAN SEMI-ARID TROPICS A FARMING SYSTEMS PERSPECTIVE
End of Project ReportAID Contract AFR-C-1472
SAFGRADFarming Systems Unit
- PURDUE IJNIVEWSITV
u rIAk International Programs in Agriculture - International Education and Research
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The farming systems research activities reported in this volume were conducted under auspices of the Farming Systems Unit of the Semi-Arid Food Grain Research and Development (SAFGRAD) Project of the Scientific Technical and Research Commission of the Organization of African Unity The project is grateful for the support of Dr Joseph Menyonga and Dr Taye Bezuneh of the SAFGRAD office in Ouagadougou The research also involved collaboration with ICRISAT and IITA scienshytists involved in complementary research under other components of the SAFGRAD program Financial support was provided by the US Agency for International Development under contract AFR-C-1472
In 1979 Purdue University implemented the Farming Systems UnitSemi-Arid Food Grain Research and Development (FSUSAGRAD) Project headquartered in Ouagadougou Burkina Faso The project continued until June 30 1986
This end-of-project report covers major aspects of the farming systems research activities which took place
The body of the report is substantive in that it presents major findings of this collaborative research effort in terms of
(a) farming systems methodology in the West African Semi-Arid Tropics (WASAT)
(b) production constraints of existing WASAT farming systems
(c) technology development of increased cereal production in that region and
(d) policy implications and future avenues for research and extension
We chose to structure the end-of-project report in this fashion for a specific reason This was to make available in one place the more important and relevant methodological and empirical findings associated with acshycelerated agricultural development in that region
The administrative report for the FSUSAFGRAD Project (AFR-C-1472) is provided in the Appendices along with a list of publications generated by FSU research
Broader coverage and details of the scientific output of this activity are available in the thirty-six research reports and workshop proceedings asshysociated with the FSUSAFGRAD Project
A life-of-project fiscal report has been submitted to the Agency for International Development under separate cover
We trust that the efforts of Professors Nagy Sanders and Ohm in developing this final report will be useful to all who continue this work
D Woods Thomas Associate Dean and Director International Programs Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 47907
CEREAL TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT - WEST AFRICAN4 SEMI-ARID TROPICS A FARMING SYSTEMS PERSPECTIVE
i Foreword
I INTRODUCTION
II THE PURDUE UNIVERSITY FARMING SYSTEMS UNIT
III FARMING SYSTEMS METHODOLOGY IN THE WEST AFRICAN SEMI-ARID TROPICS A Introduction B Describing Farmers Environments Production Systems and Objectives
The Base Line Study Stage C Designing and Implementing On-Farm Trials D Evaluation of On-Farm Technology Performance E Micro vs Macro Approaches to Farming Systems F Which Agencies Should Undertake the On-Farm Testing G Conclusions
IV PRODUCTION CONSTRAINTS OF THE WASAT FARMING SYSTEMS
V TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT TO INCREASE CEREAL PRODUCTION IN THE WASAT A Introduction B Proposed Technologies for the WASAT
1 Soil FertilityWater Retention Technologies - Tied Ridges
- DiguettesDikes - Complex Chemical Fertilizers - Indigenous Rock Phosphate
- Animal Manure and Composting - Mulch - PlowingGreen Manuring
2 Labor Saving Technologies - Animal Tcaction - Mechanical Ridge Tier - Herbicides
3 Improved Varietal Research 4 Crop Associations
C Sequencing of Technologies and Farm Management Practices in the WASAT 1 Technologies for the Present Farming System 2 Technologies for Future Farming System
VI POLICY IMPLICATIONS AND FUTURE AVENUES FOP RESEARCH AND EXTENSION
VII SUMMARY
VIII APENDICES 1 Administrative Report 2 Publications List
LIST OF TABLES
Table Page
1 Present technical and economic feasibility and time frame of proposed technologies and farm management practices for the WASAT
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2 Economic analysis of farmer-managed trials of sorghum with fertilizer and tied ridges Nedogo and Diapangou 1981 and 1984
43 - a
3 Whole farm modeling analysis of tied ridging with donkey traction Central Plateau Burkina Faso
45
4 Whole farm modeling analysis of a tied ridging fertilization 51 technology combination with donkey traction Central Plateau Burkina Faso
5 Recommendition domains and likely sequential adoption patterns of available technologies in the WASAT
57
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure Page
1 West African Sahelian and Sudanian zones 2
2 FSU research sites and climatic zones Burkina Faso 4
3 Stages of the research process 15
6 Schematic view of farming systems 17
5 Flow chart for new technology evaluation in farm trials 19
6 The IITASAFGRAD mechanical ridge tier 50
LIST OF ACRONYMS
ANOVA Analysis of Variance CIAT Centro Internacional 6e Agricultura Tropical CIMMYT Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maiz y Trigo FCFA Franc Communaut6 Financire Africaine FSR Farming Systems Research FSSP Farming Systems Support Project FSU Purdue UniversitySAFGRAD Farming Systems Unit IARC International Agricultural Research Center IBRAZ Institut Burkinabamp de Recherches Agronomiques et Zootechniques ICARDA International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas ICRISAT International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid
Tropics iFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development IFDC International Fertilizer Development Center IITA International Institute of Tropical Agriculture ILRAD International Livestock Research and Development Program INTSORMIL International SorghumMillet Program IPIA International Programs in Agriculture (Purdue University) IRAT Institut de Recherches Agronomiques Tropicales et des Cultures
Vivri~res IRRI International Rice Research Center MRT Mechanical Ridge Tier NARC National Agriculture Research Center OAU Orgacization of African Unity PCV Peace Corps Volunteer SAFGRAD Semi-Arid Food Grain Research and Development Program USAID United States Agency for International Development WASAT West African Semi-Arid Tropics
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
Food production and consumption trends in the Third World over the past two decades have shifted world attention from Asia to Sub-Saharan Africa (Paulino and Mellor 1984) The Green Revolution in Asia--the increase in rice and wheat yields brought about by improved varieties and an expanded use of fertilizer and other purchased inputs--has greatly increased Asian per capita food production (Pinstrup-Andersen and Hazell 1985) A similar Green Revolution phenomenon however has not yet taken place in sub-Saharan Africa One of the areas of most concern in Sub-Saharan Africa is the geographical region of the West African semi-arid tropics (WASAT) Current food production and population growth trends have led many to adopt a Malthusian perspective about the future of the WASAT
The countries of the WASAT include Senegal Gambia Burkina Faso the southern portions of Mauritania Mali Niger and Chad and the northern portions of Ghana Benin Ni eria and Cameroon (Norman et al 1981) Troll (1966) defines semi-ard tropics as regions where precipitation exceeds potential evapotranspiration for 2 to 7 months of the year Figure I delineates the principal climatic zones in the WASAT based on annual rainfall levels (09 probability isohyets of 1931-60 rainfall data)
The WASAT is one of the poorest regions in the world with 1984 per capita yearly incomes for countries in the area ranging between $US 80 and $US 300 (McNamara 1985) The region as a whole has balance of trade and balance of payments problems The economies depend heavily on foreign aid borrowing and worker remittances People (labor) are one of the biggest exports from the region--an estimated 25 of the labor force of Burkina Faso works in neighboring non-WASAT areas (World Bank 1981) The region exhibits a bottom-heavy age pyramid with country population growth rates ranging between 25 to 30 per ear and a fertility rate averaging 65 children per adult female The growth in per capita food production (1971shy1984) for the region as a whole is negative while levels of food imports (largely from donor agencies) have increased dramatically over the last 25 years (McNamara 1985 Paulino and Mellor 1984)
The declining food production per capita is associated with the conshytinuing droughts of the 1968-73 and 1976-80 periods (Nicholson 1982) and the most recent 1984 drought Other factors such as inadequate economic incentives for farmers and the failure to adapt and adopt new agricultural technologies have also been cited as explanations for the failure of food production to accompany population growth
(Adapted from World Bank 1985)200 o0 200
ALGERIA -200
20
MAURITANIAOE
SahLan NLMALI 3XJ50n n6038 0
uda n - ne13A v C e 0L 0
10 GUINEA-BISS1U 00 2 00 GUINEA i S h i and Sud -nia Zones
SIERRA IVORY 0 IERA LEONECOAST
0HNI -
CLIMATIC ZONES AEO1 o0O Zones Rainfall
-- 350 - 30-Sahelo-aian P Sahelo- aian NL50 - 350
Sudanian 600 -800 0Komts 200 400 600 Sudano-Guinean Above 800 K oM lers shy
200 4 00
deg deg20 0 100 o 10c0 deg 20
Figure 1 West African Sahelian and Sudanian Zones
3
Since the WASAT does nLt have the manland pressure of much of Asia and Asia has been successful in rapidly increasing agricultural production in its prime agricultural areas it is useful to look at the resource base in this region The present manland ratios in the WASAT average roughly15 persons per sq km (World Bank 1985) compared with up to 600 persons per sq km in Asia (McNamara 1985) The poorer agricultural resource base of the WASAT however cannot support the high man-land ratio of Asia (Matlon 1985) For example in the older settlement villages of the Central Plateau of Burkina Faso manland ratios are as high as 60 persons per sqkm (World Bank 1985) These high manland ratios relative to the resource base have been causing the breakdown of the traditional bush-fallow farming systems Traditionally the crop area was cultivated for 3 to 5 years and then left idle for a decade or more to restore soil fertility In many of the older settlement villages increased population has meant limited access to new land a shortening of the fallow rotation period and the culshytivation of more marginal land (Norman et al 1982 Dugue 1985) For example in the village (Figure 2)of Nedogo Burkina Faso many fields have been cultivated as long as the farmers can remember (FSUSAFGRAD 1983) Moreover almost all the crop residues are utilized for feed or building materials or else burned further exhausting the fertility of the soil Declinin7 soil fertility in the older settled regions has bei disshyrupting the cereal production systems pushing the cereals into more marshyginal areas and encouraging a substitution of millet for sorghum (Ames 1986)
During the high rainfall period of the fifties and early sixties intensive crop production was further extended into the Sahelo-Sudanian zone (World Bank 1985) With the droughts and increased desertification of the late sixties and seventies many have become concerned with the posshysible interaction of human settlement and further desertification (Nicholson 1982 World Bank 1985) While this debate has not been resolved there is no doubt that the resource base in much of the Sahelo-Sudanian zone has further deteriorated The cereals deficit problem has become increasingly serious
All three phenomena--the disappearing fallow system the failure to incorporate crop residues and the extension of crop cultivation into more marginal agricultural regions--lead to further soil detcrioration in the absence of technological intervention In overpopulated agriculturalregions such as the Central Plateau of Burkina Faso the bush fallow systemis being replaced by a permanent cultivation system characterized by verylow and stagnant cereal yields (Lang et al 1984 see Ruthenberg 1980 for other examples of this dynamics)
Not all the WASAT is overpopulated Rather many of the regions can be characterized as frontier zones For example the eastern region of Burkina Faso (ie Diapangou Figure 2) with man-land ratios of 15 persons
I
oBURKINA FASO I Principal Cities 3 350
FSU Survey Villages Dori
OuaigoyaBangasse
deg 00 1i0
Dissankuy FauF
Bdobo ogo NGourma 800bullDioulasso bulloBE -I -NIN
TOGOBanfora
GHANA CLIMATIC ZONES Zones Rainfall
IVORY COAST Sahelian NLC- 350IVRYCASlSahelo-Sudanian 350 - 600
Sudanian 600 - 800 Sudano-Guinean Above 800
(I) NLC NORTHERN LIMIT OF CULTIVATION (2) ISOHYETS INn
00
Figure 2 FSU research sites and climatic zones of Burkina Faso
5
per sq km has surplus land and follows the bush-fallow system of cultivashytion However even on the frontier as population pressure increases in the next five years a phenomenon similar to what is now taking place on the Central Plateau of Purkina Faso would be expected to occur It is becoming increasingly important to develop land substituting technologies for the overpopulated regions And although labor substituting technolshyogies are presently still very important on the frontier at the present pace of developnnt the frontier zones will confront similar problems to those in the overpopulated regions during the next decade
Given the present cereals crisis in the WASAT it is becoming critical to develop or ad~pt new agricultural technologies which will reverse the Malthusian trends In the mid-sixties before the start ofthe Green Revolution similar Malthusian statements were made about the agricultural potential of the Indian sub-continent However during the late sixties and seventies agricultural regions in Asia with irrigation or regular assured rainfall had the mosc rapid growth rates in technology diffusion ever empirically documented Although the resource endowment in the WASAT is not as great as that of the Punjab and similar Asian regions research reported here will atuempt to show that there is substantial potential for cereal technology development in the WASAT
The technology development process in the Purdue UniversitySAFGRAD Farming Systems Unit Project had two phases The first phase was the development of a methodology to identify the pressing constraints to cereal production increase and the testing out on farmers fields of technology alternatives available from the experiment station and from similar climatic regions in other countries The second stage was the continued evaluation of successful technologies over a sufficiently long time period and in sufficient detail to allow researchers a feeling of reasonable conshyfidence in their recommendations to both experiment station researchers and to the extension service and government officials involved in agricultural development The principle chapters of this report (III and V) are conshycerned with these two phases of the technology development process The basic methodological concepts potentially useful in other WASAT countries from the farming systems research in Burkina Faso are synthesized in Chapter III In the technology evaluation of Chapter V the results of other WASAT agricultural researchers are combined with those of the Purdue UniversitySAFGRAD Farming Systems program to give a more comprehensive evaluation of the present state of cereal technology development in the WASAT The conclusions synthesize the technology evaluation to draw out the implications for agricultural policy and for future extension and research
6
Footnotes
Rainfall averages have declined by 100 to 150 mm per year since the mid
1960s Updated isohyets using 1961-1985 data were not available In depth information on the countries and regions of the WASAT can be obtained from Kowal and Kassam 1978 McNamara 1985 Norman et al 1981 and World Bank 1985
At present there is some scope for migration to lower population denshysity areas with better soils and rainfall within the WASAT since health investments have been made to eradicate river blindness in some of the more fertile valleys (Sanders et al 1986) Several relocation proshygrams have already been undertakca in Burkina Faso (McMillan 1979) Relocation programs are costly and represent a short to intermediate solution for the WASAI Also people are reluctant to relocate and leave family friends and familar surroundings
CHAPTER II
THE PURDUE SAFGRAD FARMING SYSTEMS UNIT
The Purdue University Farming Systems Unit (FSU) funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) was part of the Semi-Arid Food Grain Research and Development Project (SAFGRAD) from December 1978 to June 1986 SAFGRAD is a regional research coordinating program implemented by the Coordination Office of the Scientific Technical and Research Commission of the Organization of African Unity (OAUSTRC) The SAFGRAD project works in cooperation with 28 sub-Saharan member countries with the coordination office located in Ouagadougou Burkina Faso The principal objective of the SAFGRAD project is to coordinate and strengthen programs in the semi-arid regions of sub-Saharan Africa that are involved in improving sorghum maize millet cowpea and groundnut yields
In the West African Semi-Arid Tropics (WASAT) SAFGRAD coordinates a research and pre-extension program The regional on-station component research is headquartered at the Central Experiment Station at Kamboinse in Burkina Faso and undertaken by IITA and ICRISAT Another component of SAFGRAD in the WASAT is the Accelerated Crops Production Officers (ACPO) program which conducts regional pre-extension and demonstration trials An integral part of the overall program is the farming systems unit which provides linkages between on-station research and the ACPOextension proshygrams The research and extension personnel of SAFGRAD (including the FSR unit) meet yearly to submit an annual report to a Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) The TAC reviews the research programs and submits the results and recommendations to the Consultative Committee (CC) which is a management and policy committee for SAFGRAD The results are passed on to host country research and extension institutions
Within the SAFGRAD framework farming systems research for Burkina Faso was provided by Purdue University for seven years up to June 1986 In the seventies farming systems methodology was still in its infancy Its mandate included the development of methodological guidelines that could be implemented in host country national and SAFGRAD sponsored farming systems programs The specific objectives of FSU were as follows
1 to identify the principle constraints to increased food producshytion
2 to identify technologies appropriate for farmers which could overshycome the production constraints
3 to develop and implement a multidisciplinary research method which could guide production technology and production research to directly address these production constraints
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4 to identify the elements of that method which could be implemented in national farming systems research programs and
5 to train host country personnel to assume increasing responsibilshyity in their contribution to research
During the life of the FSU program agronomic and socio-economic research was conducted at the on-farm level in five villages (Figure 2) The pecific operational procedures and evolution of the FSU program are reported in Nagy et al 1986b The agronomic and soci-economic field campaign findings of the FSU program are presented in FSU Annual Reports and other FSU publications
In the final year of the contract the FSU program completed the transfer of its in-country taff arid program to tie national agricultural research institution of Burkina Faso (IBRAZ) FSU also worked with the IFAD supported SAFGRAD farming systems personnel aho backstop the national farming systems programs in Butkina Faso and Benin Through regional symshyposia and consultation the methodology and results were made available to other SAFOPAD countries as well Details of the program transfer and field staff training component of objective 5 are reported in the 1985 FSU Annual Report (Nagy and Ohm 1986)
CHAPTER III
FARMING SYSTEMS METHODOLOGY IN THE WEST AFRICAN SEMI-ARID TROPICS (WASAT)
Introduction
The basic concept of farming systems research is that the research system could function more efficiently if more information on the conshystraints which prevent farmers from improving their well-being was obtained at an earlier stage of the research development process than is common in the developing countries Farm-level constraints can be identified with both surveys and on-farm trials A further extension is to supplement the on-farm trials with whole-farm modeling This chapter will be concerned with all three approaches
In developed countries the two-way linkages of communication between farmers and agricultural scientists function better than in the WASAT due to higher educational levels of the farmers better agricultural informashytion systems and financial mechanisms in developed countries which reward the agricultural research establishments and individual scientists for their contributions to resolving farm-level production problems Farming systems esearch can provide an alternative communication linkage which does not require advancements in general education or major changes in the institutional orientation of national research systems
The clientele of Farming Systems Research will depend upon the instishytutional setting and the stage of development of the technology In the initial phases of the agricultural development process as in the WASAT the most important directional flow of information is to the researchers for several reasons First farming systems even in low input agriculshyture are very complex with many systems interactions Farmers have multiple objectives and constraints and these can vary in importance and evolve over time and even in response to the conditions of the production season (Norman 1982)
Agricultural scientists in developing countries often underinvest in understanding these complex systems and farmers objectives before beginshyning research Further they may not adequately respond to knowledge which is available When farmers do not adopt the technologies produced on the experiment station and recommended to them the initial reaction of agricultural scientists in developing countries is often that the problem of non-adoption is with the farmers the extension service or national economic policies rather than with the technologies themselves
Technology development requires a thorough understanding of the scienshytific concepts applied on the experiment station plus a multi-disciplinary approach to understanding the complexity of the farmers environment farmshying systems and decision-making process The most fundamental difference between the experiment station and farmers fields is the necessary shift
10
from component parts of new technologies as produced on the experiment station to systems with impor ant interactions such as are characteristic of farmers production systems
Farming Systems Research helps to overcome these differences by nashybling agricultural scientists to improve their understanding of the comshyplexity of the farmers systems and thereby become more efficient at idenshytifying and resolving the research problems involved in overcoming farmers constraints Two desired final products are a more efficient agricultural research system and an increase in mutual comprehension between farmers and researchers Another product is the facilitation of adoption of new sysshytems of agricultural technology so that these systems can be more rapidly incorporated into the testing and diffusion program of the extension servshyice
The principal stages in farming systems research can be identified by responding to the following questions
a) What do you do first to describe the farmers production systems How much description is enough
b) How do you plan and organize on-farm trials When do you do it What are the differences between experiment station and on-farm trials
c) How do you analyze and supplement the data coming out of the onshyfarm trials What are the relevant questions to be answered about new technology performance on farms
d) At some point in technology development outside factors (exogenous variables) such as economic policy or the further development of input production or distribution capacity such as a fertilizer marketing system improved credit or a seed industry may be constraining technology introduction How does FSR set up its own boundaries while still maximizing its effectiveness in providing relevant information to facilitate the production of new technologies
e) Who should do the farming systems research Presently International Agricultural Research Centers spend an estimated 10 to 15 million dollars annually on FSR (Anderson and Dillon 1985 p 1)
The following sections of the paper will attempt to address these speshycific questions on farming systems methodology Clearly there will be some biases from the experiences of the Farming Systems Unit in Burkina Faso and the otber FSR experiences of the authors These eperiences will be utilized as illustrations
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Describing Farmers Environments Production Systems and Objectives The Baseline Study Stage
If the principal objective of tarming systems research is to improve the understanding of agricultural scientists about farm-level conditions then this data-collection or description process must begin with them They help to define the research problems and objectives of the fieldwork and to understand the particular target group of farmers Agricultural scientists need to be involved in farm-level research design in order to provide more information and to evaluate the accuracy of their hypotheses about farmer conditions and decision-making
The utilization of baseline studies for developing research priorities requires the identification and ranking of the principle conshystraints to increased output of the commodities studied This is not a simple process since there will be a strong bias from the individual disshyciplines of the researchers in the definition of the farm-level constraints Breeders will identify varietal characteristics for overcomshying specific yield constraints pathologists diseases economists will point out particular policies or markets which reduce the profitability of specific new technologies Hence a multi-disciplinary approach to the definition of constraints will be necessary from the beginning of the research design process Some investment by researchers in the tnderstandshying of other disciplines will also be necessary
Useful baseline research has included the economic quantification of production losses from various insects and diseases This information helped confirm the research strategies of resistance breeding for field beans at CIAT (Sanders 1984 Sanders and Lynam 1982) Similarly in Burkina Faso the initial anthropological descriptions of faring systems (M Saunders 1980) and the economic analysis of farmers objectives and seasonal labor constraints helped provide orientation for agricultural researchers in the farm trials (Lang et al 1984)
An important issue within this baseline stage is that it is extremely easy to overinvest in data collection and descriptive surveys Moreover much of the literature on farming systems puts an excessive emphasis on baseline data collection so that the research problem identification hyposhytheses analytical methodologies and even literature reviews are neglected The frequent consequence is the amassing of large quantities of data which are only partially analyzed Even with analysis much of the data collection traditionally undertaken at this stage of FSR has resulted in interesting descriptions of little relevance to researchers in reshydefining their research priorities
There are several methods for avoiding the pitfalls of random and largely irrelevant data collection The first is an extension of a method presently utilized by many agricultural scientists to identify for themshyselves the important constraints in farmers fields This involves their going into the field to see farm-level problems in their disciplinary
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3 area A simple extension is to make these field trips multi-disciplinary and to involve some pre-trip discussion and mutual definition of field objectives If farm-level interviewing remains unstructured the datashyamassing problem can be avoided Multi-disciplinary collaboration is begun and can bd continued in the development of a report synthesizing the field observations Often these initial trips or sondeos have led to more formal multi-disciplinary questionnaire development and surveying in a second stage Clearly with the involvement of several disciplines the demand for data can increase exponentially
To more rapidly interest the agricultural scientists a different technique is suggested At any given time agricultural scientists genershyally have their own ideas of what will work on farmers fields These ideas can come directly from their own experiments from observations of farmers in other regions or from Vhe literature The suggestion here is to move rapidly into on-farm trials This will then give a defined frameshywork for supplementing on-farm trials with diagnostic surveys which have well-defined objectives ie to better evaluate specific socio-economic issues involved in introducing these new technologies tested on the farmshyers fields into the farmers production system
In these baseline surveys of the functioning of the farm and household systems at the beginning of an FSR project the anthropologists and sociologists have often made outstanding contributions to our understanding (M Saunders 1980 Reeves and Frankenberger 1982) When these surveys by the social scientists have been integrated with the research objectives of agricultural scientists their utility has been further increased It is recommended that a farming systems project begin with baseline surveys of farm and household conditions in each major target area preferably undershytaken by an anthropologist (also see Simmonds 1984 p 74) These baseshyline studies and a commencement of on-farm trials in the first production season are suggested as the appropriate way to begin farming systems reshysearch in the WASAT
The principal emphasis here is on moving rapidly to on-farm trials with supplementary analysis to provide understanding of the potential role of the new technologies in the whole farm system The methodology for this type of evaluation will be explained in detail in the fourth section on Evaluation As this type of on-farm testing and modeling analysis is being undertaken further diagnostic surveys are often useful to complement the principal investigation of the on-farm trials and farm modeling An exshyample in the Burkina Faso FSU program after three to five years of on-farm testing in different villages was a survey to evaluate adoption by parshyticipant and non-participant farmers of the new technologies tested
Designing and Implementing On-Farm Trials
There are two central issues in the implementation of on-farm trials First multi-disciplinary collaboratin is essential especially between agricultural scienmtists and economists Secondly the research objectives
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of the experiment station and on-farm trials are different hence the organization design and arnalysis of the on-farm trials are different from those on the experiment station
True multi-disciplinary collaboration is not easy since each discishypline has its body of literature its journals certain statistical methods customarily dominated by its practitioners and even its philosophical attitudes about research and the process of agricultural development Moreover universities and many agricultural research institutions are organized by discipline Promotions in universities are linked to publicashytions in the high prestige journals of individual disciplines
To overcome these barriers between disciplines strong institutional support and continued personal relationships are both required There is a tendency in farming systems projects to give control of the on-farm trials to either the biological or the social scientists or to compartmentalize their efforts For example the agricultural scientists might manage the researcher-managed on-farm trials and the economists the farmer-managed trials Or the agricultural scientist might ask the economists help in interpreting data without collaborating with himher on field research planning and design
The most basic differences between agricultural scientists and econoshymists are in their treatment of data (Collinson 1981 p 442) Agriculshytural scientists are trained to be extremely careful in data generation to verify results over a number of years and to utilize variations of analyshysis of variance to analyze the significance of yield differences However policymakers generally need new technology recommendations in short time periods and farmers are more interested in the profitability and fit into their operati s of one or two new systems of production than in the idenshytification of the level of significance of the treatments and their interactions
Economists with simple modeling and synthetic estimates (judgements of agricultural scientsts) can help fill the gap between the public policymakers and the farmers demands for new technology information and the output from agricultural scientists Some knowledge of the agriculshytural sciences and some simple modeling are the necessary components of the economists contribution The primary requisite for successful interdisshyciplinary collaboration is the desire of the team to respond rapidly to real world problems of technology evaluation even if the data utilized are preliminary and some of them are synthetic Preliminary results can always be refined and improved with further experiments andor data collection and analysis
One important contribution of Farming Systems Research has been to demonstrate the strategic importance of on-farm testing of new technologies as a critical component of the agricultural research process (for an estishymate of the rate of return to this research see Martinez and Arauz 1984) The primary unit in new technology production is the experiment station
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However once the component parts of new technologies have been tested on the experiment station they can be combined into packages and tested under a wide range of farming conditions (Figure 3) The synergistic or multishyplicative (rather than additive) impact of combining several factors of production is well kriown in the agricultural sciences The individual factors are identified and measured on the experiment station In the onshyfarm trials combinations of factors are evaluated to identify new systemsof production that are profitable and fit into farmers production systems
On the experiment station non-treatment inputs are held at fixed but generally high levels so that they do not affect the performance of the treatment input(s) Usually the potential for static (increased variance) in the response of the treatment input(s) is reduced by the high levels of utilization of other inputs Experiment station trials tend to study one or sometimes two factors in considerable detail Experiment stations are usually selected in the best agricultural regions and over time due to different cultural practices the agricultural conditions become substanshytially different from those on farmers fields (Sanders and Lynam 1982 Byerlce Collinson et al 1981)
Once the more basic experiments have been undertaken on the station and before recommendations are made farm-level testing is necessary If the technology performance depends upon soil climate insect or disease incidence the farm trials can help identify these factors and estimate the economic impact of overcoming the specific constraint at different levels of its incidence For example fertilizers will have a larger impact in low soil fertility regions and a disease resistant variety will be more impressive where the disease occurs A water retention technique such as tied ridges wouli be expected to work better in the heavier soils In sandier soils the ridges will be more rapidly destroyed by wind or water Moreover the on-farm trials provide a crude estimate of the relative importance of the specific constraints on the farmers fields during the production period evaluated
One method for analyzing these betwcen-farm differences in new techshynology puiformance in greater detail is to utilize a large number of farms for the farm-level trials Repetitions are often made by increasing the number of farms rather than includi ig repetitions on each farm site (DeDatta et al 1978 Sanders and Lynam 1982) One implication of this design is that variance within farms cannot he separated Another is that within any constrained planting zeason a larger number of farms can be included
Another way to handle the between-farm variation in technology perforshymance is to stratify the environments in which the technology is evaluated
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Experiment Station On-Farm Trials
More Basic Research More Applied Research
Component Research Systems or Package Research
Variance from Non-Treatment Analyze Variance from Non-Factors Minimized Treatment Factors
Repetitions on Same Experiment Replications Across Farms
New Technologies Originate Hrre New Technologies Evaluated Here Primary Activity Secondary Activity
Emphasis on Feedback of Information to Researchers in the Experiment Station
Based Upon Technology Performance on Farms--Request Technology Modifications from the Experiment Station
To Extension Service for Further Testing and Dissemination
Figure 3 Stages of the research process
SOURCE Adapted from Sanders and Lynam 1982 p 99
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Soil types rainfall regimes or even farmer characteristics can be utilshyized to define research domains However the performance of many new technologies under different farm-level conditions is often a stochastic event The incidence of diseases and insects is unknown at planting time so there is no way to define research domains for these problems If there is a large sample the data carn be stratified after the trials Since it is often difficult in practice to minimize the on-farm performance variashytions of new technologies by defining research (or recommendation) domains with homogeneous characteristics it is frequently necessary to employlarger sample sizes ie more on-farm trials The number of trials necessary will also depend upon the types of technologies evaluated
In the initial years of on-farm testing (early and mid-70s)economists and other social scientists frequently administered the trials Over time agricultural scientists have generally taken over the implemenshytation of these trials This transition has improved trial quality since agricultural scientists are trained for this activity However the failure to adequately specify the objectives of on-farm testing can lead to trials which are only replicas of experiment centtation trials
With the above detailed examination of the on-farm methodologies it is easy to forget that the origin of new technologies is the experimentstation This is the primary unit in the technology development processThe on-farm testing performs an important evaluation function in the reshysearch production process but it is secondary to the primary organ of agricultural research the experiment station Moreover the quality of the on-farm trials will depond upon the input from the agriculturalscientist In the design and the evaluation phases the interdisciplinary input especially fcom econiomists will be critical
The integration of the on-farm and station-based research and their links to diagnostic surveys of the farmers in the target regions and to the operational research utilizing the data resulting from the on-farm trials are [llustrated in Figure 4 As mentioned previously both the diagnostic surveys and the evaluation of on-farm trials have important roles and should function simultaneously The operational research for the evaluashytion of these on-farm triaLs will be considered in the next section
Evaluation of On-Farm Technology Performance
The on-farm trials combine several factors or component parts preshyviously evaluated on he experiment station into different systems or packages Isolating each factor aid its interactions in these trials freshyquently becomes unmanageable Beets (1982) cites an IRRI cropping systemexperiment with 750 possible treatment combinations However 7 the princishypal concern of the on-farm trials is to identify combinationswhich are profitable of factorsand fit into the farmers systems of produccion
17
Target group farmers of a recommendation
domain in a Vagion
Survey diagnosis of farmer priorities resource and environment problems and development opportunities
Identification ofunsolved technical problems and possible new practices and materials relevant to farmers development opportunities
On-farm adaptive research
Operational research for identification and evaluation of materials and techniques
offering potential for problemsolution and the exploitation
of opportunities
Station-based technical
On-farm testing via experiments on apparentl relevant materials and techniques under farmers conditions
Use of existing body of knowledge of materials and techniques suitable for the climate and soils of the ion
Component research usingcommodity and disciplinary
research solvingpriority technical problems
and investigating possible new materials and practices
Figure 4 Schematic view of farming systems research method (after Collinson 1982)
18
The treatments of the on-farm trials representing different systems pass through three phases of evaluation (Figure 5) The first phase is identical to the experiment-station analysis some variation of analysis of variance (ANOVA) It determines whether under farmers conditions there are significant yield differences with the new technologies as comparedwith the treatment representing traditional farmers practices
However technology needs to move beyond yield differences to be acceptable to farmers With a minimal increase in data requirements from the local environment the yield data from the treatments are converted into gross and then net revenue utilizing product prices and input costs This simple budgeting answers the second question in the flowchart of Figure 5 Is the new technology more profitable than farmers traditional practices
Mention should be made here of two frequently cited problems with simple budgeting (a) price variation over time and within the production season and (b) costing of non-traded inputs such as land and family labor Product prices can vary substantially within a year especially with the customary post-harvest price collapse and between years in regions with substantial climatic fluctuations and limited governmental role in pricestabilization Moreover input costs will depend upon government subsidies and the real input costs to the farmer will also depend upon the availability of an input such as fertilizer at the right place and the right time Questions about the appropriate prices and costs to be utilshyized in the evaluation are valid concerns which need to be dealt with in the economic analysis of new technology
Price variability and the effects of government policy and market development mean that profitability is a complicated decision which can be influenced by the farmers marketing strategies and by macro factors outshyside the farmers control Nevertheless farmers need to be able to devise some strategy to make a profit from a new technology Sensitivity analysiswhich varies the prices and costs over the relevant range can be utilized to respond to this problem The simple budgeting analysis of on-farm trials is usually a mean or median estimate The variation in yield pershyformance and prices received between farms is a useful complement to this measure
Some of the relevant inputs that neeJ to be costed for budgetinganalysis may not have a market price In the WASAT family labor duringcertain periods for performing specific cultural operations such as the first weeding has a very high implicit value and may even be constrainingcertain types of output expansion Mathematical programming models take into account the implicit value of the inputs and put a cost on them (shadow price) whereas budgeting treatments make some arbitrary assumpshytions about the labor market Land rental depreciation of the capitalinput and management costs are also difficult to estimate and are
19
Trial New farm results trials
(1)
Are there Yes significant Increases No
Infarm yields with the new technologytech~(noloy
(2) farms be
Ysmore
Is thenwtechnology
profitable than
farmers practices~(multiple
Noaffecting
stratified bycharacteristics
the successful
performance of the newregres-
Yes
sion cluster analysis)
(3)
Yes new technology N Newfit into the No [experiments
farmers production system(programming marketing)
extension service Analysis and diagnosisL
for further testing feedback for andor technology redesign
extension
FLgure 5 Flow Chart for New Technology Evaluation in Farin Trials
Source Sanders and Lynam 1982 p 100
In any of the three stages of evaluation a new technology treatment may not pass the criteria based upon mean values Then astratification of farms is attempted upon an a priori basis For example the performance of a fertilizer technology would beInfluenced by the soil types Ifthere were two types of soils and there was a return to fertilization on one and not the other thenstratification into these two groups would be undertaken For the subgroup of farms where the fertilizer technology waseffective the three stages of evaluation would commence again The subgroup where fertilization was not effective would raiseresearch questions for analysis and diagnosis as Indicated in the above flowchart
20
often omitted in the simple or partial budgeting In spite of the difshyficulties of costing some inputs and the price variation profitability comparisons with sensitivity analysis give substantially more information than yield comparisons
Nevertheless even profitability is not a sufficient criteria for farmer acceptance A new system may be profitable but may require more labor at a peak period than the farmer can release from his other operashytions or the new activity may have much higher capital requirements than the farmer can obtain The third question (Figure 5) is whether the techshynology fits into the farmers production system Whereas simple budgeting can indicate that one activity is more profitable than another mathematishycal programming takes into account all other present and potentialactivities and the available on-farm and off-farm resources Utilizing this technique and the above information an estimate of the extent of potential adoption of a new technology on a representative farm can be made Moreover the farm-level constraints to the further adnption of more profitable nctivities can be identified Clearly the value of this modelshying will depend upon the researchers understanding of the farming systpmand his ability to simplify the model to the essential elements
These mathematical programming whole-farm modeling techniques have been operationalized at the farm level for approximately twenty years so their practical value in assisting public and farmer decision-making in developed countries has been repeatedly demonstrated (Doster et al 1981 McCarl 1982) One difficulty in the implementation of this technique in developing countries has been the computer requirement however the rapid diffusion of micro computers to the developing countries is resolving this problem even in the WASAT Nevertheless there is a necessary time investshyment involved in training the technicians economists and agricultural scientists to implement the se models and to interpret the results
Mathematical programming forces researchers to focus their data colshylection on the systems problems of production in a whole-farm context (forreviews and applications see Anderson et al 1985 Ghodake and Hardakef 1981 Roth et al 1986) Simple technical coefficients representing the relationships between inputs and outputs and the resources available to the farmer are the relevant data sets for evaluation of profitability and the fit of the new technologies into the farmers systems of productionAdjustments in the modeling can be made for more complicated farmer beshyhaviors than profit maximization Risk avoidance can be explicitlyincluded in the analysis with programming Other constraints imposed byeconomic and technical factors can frequently be included
Another step in technology evaluation could be the analysis of the intra- and inter-household effects (see McKee 1984 Nagy Ohm and Sawadogo 1986) There has been much concern recently with the role of women in farm production and consumption analysis more specific considerashytion of their roles in land use investment and consumption decisions are warranted Moreover specific technologies could have equity effects on
21
different types o6 farms and policymakers are often concerned with these potential outcomes
Many other considerations could also be raised such as environmental concerns or the cultural trauma often associated with economic or institushytional change However the emphasis of this paper is responding to the three questions in the flow diagram of Figure 5 Positive answers to these questions have been associated with farmer adoption of new technologies in both Colombia (Sanders and Lynam 1982 p 104) and Burkina Faso (Sanders et al 1985 pp 24-28) thus providing support for the evaluation criteria presented here These evaluation criteria as reflected in the three questions of Figure 5 appear to be logical simple and powerful for undertaking farm-level evaluation of new technologies
Micro vs Macro Approaches to Farming Systems Research
The farming system fits into and is affected by many larger systems Agricultural policy the availability of inputs and the functioning of the product markets all affect farm-level decisions about new technologies and farm-level planning for the development of new technologies
The most conservative approach in on-farm technology development is to assume that all these systems are not evolving and to attempt to develop new farming systems for the present levels of development in the other systems In the WASAT this orientation would precipitate a search for minimum input cost systems such as
a) new varieties used without chemical inputs such as inorganic fertilizer
b) higher densities c) different planting dates d) different rotations e) more systematic use of multiple cropping f) more utilization of on-farm inputs such as mulch and manure
These types of marginal changes are attempts to obtain small yield increments utilizing either available resources on the farm or an input such as a new variety which requires a minimal cash expenditure Oneshyinput changes of available resources such as planting dates and rotations are easy for farmers to implement and observe and many farmers carry on small experiments of this type The observation that farmers are not utilizing these adjustments appears to be good evidence that there are technical reasons for them not to utilize them G~ferally the yield effects of the small adjustments ate either very small or under certain natural condit ns they precipitate other problems irn the cropping system For example in Colombia higher field bean densities significantly inshycreased disease incidence even with spraying (CIAT 1979 p 92)
In the last decade the French international agricultural research institute (IRAT) has been joined by three other institutes (CIMMYT
22
ICRISAT and IITA) in the WASAT Their principal research activity has been the development of new food crop varieties especially cereals Yet few cereal varieties have been successful enough to displace local cultivars Matlon (1985) estimated that the new cereal varieties presently occupy less than 5 of the WASAT crop area In our view new varieties unaccompanied by other inputs belong in this group of marginal changes which have had little impact Why Much of the WASAT is characterized by inadequate and irregular rainfall and low fertility soils These are difficult agricultural conditions for one-inpit changes Therefore it appears that WASAT farmers will neei to itilize higher levels oflyurchased inputs and to take more risks in order t) increase their incomes
Presently the level of purchased input utilization in the WASAT especially chemical inputs is extremely low The eight Sahelian countries have the lowest chemical fertilizer consumption in the world at less than 3 kgha on crops Animal traction is still in the introductory stage at less than 15 of the farmers in the WASAr (Matlon 1985) Moreover only a smail portion of the cereals are marketed (less than 10 in FSU sample villages on the Central Plateau in Burkina Faso) Only 3 of the cropland in the eight Sahelian countries is irrigated (Matlon 1983) With these low levels of input use and infrastructure it does not appear to be approshypriate to develop new technologies for high levels of input use However it is important to make improvements in the marketing systems so that modshyerate input levels can be utilized and there will be increased marketing of the cereals
Marginal changes such as the minimal input utilization changes disshycussed previously are not expected to be sufficient to interest farmers or to lead to sustained yield increases Moderate input levels including chemical inputs are expected to be necessary to obtain significant yield increases which fit economically into the farmers production systems (see Chapter V for specific details on chemical fertilizer) Hence as new technologies are being developed and implemented over time input and proshyduct marketing institutions must also evolve The development of these markets may require governmental support and further research The effishyciency of the para-statal product marketing agencies and the role of prishyvate and public institutions in input markets are two primary issues of concern in the present agricultural development literature on Sub-Saharan Africa
What role should FSR projects have in influencing agricultural policy and other macro issues Historically there has been an urban bias in agricultural policies in most WASAT countries To keep food prices low for urban consumers WASAT governments have frequently intervened via parashystatal marketing organizations To compensate farmers for the low product prices these same governments often have provided input subsidies to farmshyers Presently the World Bank and US AID hTje been pressuring WASAT governments to eliminate these input subsidies At least in the short run this will reduce the profitability of agriculture discourage investshyment in agriculture and delay technology adoption Part of the evaluation
23
of new technologies by the FSR program should include some sensitivity analysis to estimate the farm-level effects of various agricultural polishycies including the elimination of input subsidies
In the recent summarv of FSR for the World Bank (Simmonds 1984) a distinction was drawn betweei modifications to present farming systems and entirely new systems of production Improved agronomy with moderate levels of inputs and ultimately introducing new varieties for these improved systems would be in the first category (and see Chapter V for concrete examples) However many of the poorer more marginal environments in the WASAT ultimately will need to gradually withdraw from crop production and move into grazing systems or forestry Crop farming in the WASAT migrated further north after the high rainfall period of the fifties As yield increases are attained in those regions of rainfed aiculture with more potential and in the river valleys and irrigated areas some present crop areas can be returned to more extensive agricultural systems Farming systems research will need to make some decisions about the regions with the most agricultural potential For those truly marginal regions more comprehensive systems changes may be necessary than are customarily evaluated in farming systems research
r-tional policy factors and national agricultural development planshyning cannot be ignored in FSR Many of these macro factors and evolving changes need to be explicitly incorporated into the analysis of which technologies and regions are appropriate for evaluation Nevertheless it is recommended that modeling concentrate on the farm level Without much better micro data and analysis than is presently available in most developshying countries extending farm models to sector analysis seems to be only a training device for economists rather than a useful exercise to enlighten agricultural development planners As the micro-modeling foundation is improved in the next five to ten years the agricultural sector models will be able to give a more useful input into agricultural policy formulation in the WASAT countries
Which agencies should undertake the on-farm testing
FSR presently takes five to ten percent of the budgets of several IARCs (Simmonds 1984 pp 67 68) and the IARCs have generally taken a leadership role in field application of on-farm testing The long-run frequently stated objective of the IARCs is to turn this activity over to the national agricultural research systems (NARC) The rationale is that the on-farm trials give very location-specific results The IARCs can develop methodologies and demonstrate the utilization of new research activities to the NARCs but ultimately larger numbers of on-farm trials in many regions will need to be undertaken in developing countries to evaluate the diverse technologies being produced in the IARCs and NARCs Not only does the scale of this testing make it infeasible for the IARCs to undertake all of it themselves but also much of the testing will be outside the commodity mandates of the individual IARCs
24
The institutional placement of on-farm testing depends upon the relative importance of the two clienteles for the products of the research at a given stage of technology development These two potential clienteles are the extension seryjce and the agricultural researchers On-farm trials which are successful give important information to the extension service and to those public officials involved with agricultural policy On-farm trials which are not successful give feedback on farm-level problems with the technologies to researchers at the experiment stations in both the national and international centers
If the primary emphasis of the on-farm trials needs to be on feedshyback then there are two problems with the present location of most farming systems research in the IARCs First several of the centers put the principal emphasis of their on-farm trials on providing information for the NARCs and the extension services (Simmonds 1985 pp 92-97) Presently there is less concern with feedback from the on-farm trials to IARC reshysearchers on the relevance and problems of the technologies they are developing Organizationally it appears to be very difficult for a divishysion of one institution to ierve for very long as an effective critic of its own activities
Secondly most of the IARCs Pre crop-breeding institutions including CIMMYT IRRI CIAT ICRISAT ICARDA and IITA Two of these centers CIMMYT and IRRI have been very successful in producing new varieties for those environments with adequate assured water availability and moderate to high levels of input utilization However in most of the harsher environments including the WASAT where these conditions are not met improvements in agronomy to attain moderate purchased input levels may need to precede the introduction of new varieties On-farm testing undertaken or financed by the IARCs tends to concentrate on the varietal effect since that is their mandate In these harsher environments institutions other than the IARCs (or even the NARCs which receive IARC assistance of new germ plasm) may need to do the on-farm testing
This on-farm testing in harsher climatic regions such as the WASAT would concentrate first on identifying agronomic improvements ie the combination of measures to improve water retention and soil fertility At a later stage the IARCs and NARCs could develop new varieties for these improved (but not high input) production systems The main points here are that at least in the WASAT stage of agricultural development the princishypal focus of on-farm testing will need to be on feedback to the research station and the principal focus of research on agronomic improvements
On-farm testing can be considered either as the last stage of the agricultural research process befcre passing the innovation on to the Extension Service or the first stage of the Extension process before demonstration trials and active diffusion measures Clearly there needs to be interaction between the NARC and the Extension Service consisting of the regular exchange of information and even planning of the on-farm trials If there is sufficient exchange of information and collaboration
25
in on-farm trial design the institutional location of these trialswill be less important
In summary on-farm trials will need to be undertaken by most agencies involved in agricultural experimentation in the WASAT Communication barriErs are sufficiently large between scientists and farmers that this type of intermediate activity is expected to be necessary for several decades since the IARCs NARCs and other agencies apparently need this source of feedback on the performance of their technologies Since we have been stressing the importance of feedback all through this chapter we argue that the on-farm trials should be located in the research rather than the extension entity so that feedback results are more readily acceptable at the experiment station
As on-farm trials move into the NARCs and are financed by their own internal financial resources lower ccst methods for conducting on-farm trials must be sought These trials tend to be very intensive in their use of highly qualified scientific manpower for planning and evaluation Their execution requires good logistic support and training for a large number of field workers It would appear that in the WASAT external financing and external scientific manpower will be necessary for some time to continue high levels of on-farm testing
Conclusions
Defining farmers constraints to increasing agricultural production is a complicated task best illustrated by example In the conclusions to this report (Chapter VI) we return to this problem to illustrate the conshytribution of the Purdue farming systems project to constraint identification in the WASAT Meanwhile the survey process can be divided into an initial or baseline study which describes the farmers production and household systems and supplementary or diagnostic surveys which invesshytigate particular research areas as they arise For the baseline study the in-depth village-household production and consumption analyses freshyquently undertaken by anthropologists and sociologists seem especially relevant to an understanding of the farming systems in the areas specifishycally targeted for further research activity during the on-farm stage of FSR Supplementary diagnostic 3urveys can then be undertaken in response to specific objectives of th farm-level work especially the on-farm testing of new technclogies These will often be within the disciplinary area of agricultural economists In the modeling stage of the evaluation process there will frequently be a need for supplementary farm business or household information
One primary recommendation here is that the on-farm testing phase of the FSR begin in the first production season Agricultural scientists will generally have a series of recommendations of component parts for farm testing Putting these individual factors together into technology packages and testing them under farmers conditions will help to further develop their understanding of farmers objectives and systems The
26
agricultural scientists will generally have much more interest in field experiments than in the diagnostic surveys In this initial stage of onshyfarm testing the principal direction of information flow will be feedback to the researchers as the packages are expected to have either technical or economic prulblems impeding their acceptance by farmers
Multi-disciplinary collaboration especially between the agricultural scientists and economists is essential for the on-farm testing Agriculshytural scientists know well the mechanics of the testing process Econoshymists understand the farmers objectives Both need to collaborate to understand the interactions and complexities of farmers systems of proshyduction There should be collaboration in research design to avoid replishycating experiment station trials and to obtain the necessary data for economic analysis
On the farm the treatments are generally different systems of production rather than individual factors The analysis proceeds from a statistical analysis of the significance of yield differences to economic concerns with profitability and the fit into the farmers systems of proshyduction The comparison between treatments analyzes the potential benefits to the farmers from new technology adoption since the control is a proxy for the farmers system of production The simplest economic analysis is the evaluation of profitability using partial budgets However this type of analysis is not as simple as it appears because of price variation and the difficulty of attiibutinrg prices to some production factors Generally an attempt is made to overcome these budgeting problems with sensitivity analysis
The final step in the evaluation is to consider the potential fit of the activity irto the farmers systems of production with mathematical proshygramming This whole f=crm analysis simulates the farmers decision-making process by including information on all present and potential activities using the data on on-farm and off-farm resource availabilities New sysshytems of production that pass through all three stages of this evaluation are expected to be adopted by farmers There is some adoption evidence from both Colombia and Burkina Faso supporting the above assertion
In the harsh envirarunent of the WASAT given the very low utilization of purchased inputs at present marginal agronomic changes such as density timing or even varietal change are expected to have little or even negashytive impact Larger systems changes involving technologies which simultaneously augment water conservation and soil fertility are hypothesized as necessary in order to raise yields sufficiently so that these new systems not only yield more than farmers practices on their own fields but also are profitable and fit into farmers production systems
National economic and agricultural policies can have a large impact on technology evaluation and even the planning of FSR Policymakers need to be concerned with creating an environment in which farmers can make money from adopting new technologies In the short run in the WASAT the
27
elimination of input subsidies especially if ceilings are retained for product prices will make it more difficult for farmers to profit from new technology adoption By evaluating the impact of different agricultural and economic policies on the farm-level profitability and potential adopshytion of new technologies the FSR program may be able to help influence governmental policy formation
Another impact of national policy is on agricultural development planning Frequently FSR programs are designed for marginal agricultural areas Alternatives to developing technologies for these regions may be public health investments in river valleys and yield-improving strategies in the dryland regions with better agricultural resources If yields can be sufficiently improved for the higher resource regions some shifting into livestock or even forestry may be appropriate land-use decision for the more marginal agricultural areas For these types of land-use changes government would need to finance the human resettlement costs Change in agricultural activities of this magnitude are not generally included in FSR Hence Simmonds (1984 p 121) developed a new term for it New Farming Systems Develonment (NFSD)
In the WASAT a prerequisite to new variety development appears to be the simultaneous utilization of moderate input levels to improve water retention and soil fertility Once these agronomic improvements are in place new variety introduction is expected to have more potential for sucshycess than at the present time Some of the on-farm trials in the WASAT may need to be underjgken by agencies whose principal activity is not new variety development
The on-farm testing can be either the final step in the research proshycess of the NARC IARC or other research institution or the fi t step in the Extension Service before demonstration trials or other disL mination activities The institutional location should depend upon whether the prishymary product is feedback on technology improvement to experiment station researchers or feedforward of technologies to be disseminated by the Extension Service Since the process of feedback to researchers is conshysidered to be the most important objective of on-farm testing in the early stages of agricultural technology development in the WASAT our institushytional preference for the location of these trials is with the national agricultural research centers (NARCs) rather than the national extension service The scientists in the on-farm trials will know how to convince the scientists on the experiment station of the validity of their results Some of them may even fulfill algual role working on both the experiment station and the on-farm trials As more technology is validated in the on-farm trials and can move on to the Extension Service the returns to investments in the institutional ties between the NARCs and the Extension Service will be increased
28
FOOTNOTES
This type of infrmation flow is customarily referred to as feedback
Farming Systems and other research programs also attempt to provideinformation on new technologies to farmers and extension agents Anyagricultural research program ult imately needs to have an impact on the well-being of farmers in order to survive Since the economic imporshytance of this directional flow of information to farmers is obvious we consider it to be more importlant to stress here the importance of the feedback to researchers so that they are more effective in doing their job ie producing new technologies
2 Dillon (1976 pp 6-7) contrasts philosophic differences of scientific
investigation into two approaches Reduc t ionism implied reducingphenomena to their more basic (and hopefully independent) parts analyzshying these parts as independent entities to explain their behavior and then aggregating these explanations as an explanation of the phenomenon under study Reductionism abetted and fostered the proliferation of specialized deafness and tunnel vision in form of independentthe scienshytific disciplines
Since the fifties reductionism has been increasingly seen as an inadequate basis for science to either understand or to manipulate and control its environment An alternative approach is the systems or holistic approach This is a multi-disciplinary approach in which explanation then proceeds in terms of the role or function of the part in the Larger system(s)
Clearly heshe will be exposed to all the other types of constraints but disciplinary blinders often exist especially for those involved in their own research programs
4 A recent international agricultural research center meeting for the planniig of on-farm trials in Africa concluded that the initial descripshytion and diagnostic activity of the FSR should be rapidly implemented so that a crop season for experimentation is not lost (unpublished summaryof meeting notes ILRAD Oct 1984) Diagnosticsurvey activities and farm-level experimentation can continue simultaneously In fact the farm-level experimentation will require additional diagnosticsurvey activities to evaluate the Economic potential of the new technology
The diagnostic surveys of economists have not been nearly as useful for a comprehensive understanding of the farming and household systems as those of the anthropologists Howev-r the utility of the economist on multi-disciplinary teams to undertake and evaluate on-farm trials has been repeatedly demonstrated and is now widely if not universally acshycepted (Simmonds 1984 pp 24 71-75 125) The other social scienshytists have not yet demonstrated their capacity to work on these types of teams They appear to be in the position of defining their role a position similar to that of the economists about a decade earlier
29
6 Generally soil fertility is higher on the experiment station and the
incidence of anddiseases insects is greater than on the surrounding farms due to the repeated intensive cultivation of the same crops Howshyever on the experiment station the high levels of non-treatment inputs such as agricultural chemicals can reduce the levels of insects disshyeases and weeds to levels even lower than on the farmers fields For farmers these levels of chemical control are often not profitable
Occasionally the impact of one or two components will be estimated as with fertilization and tied ridges (a water-conservation technique) alone and in combination in the Burkina Faso FSU program
8 If the weeding is not done opportunely there can often be a yield
decline Moreover all farms in a given region will be performing these types of operations at approximately the same time Hence it will be very difficult for farmers to hire temporary labor away from their famshyily operations So the implicit value or productivity of the family labor becomes very high in these particular tasks at certain critical times
9 A more comprehensive agricultural policy analysis would include the macro effect of new technology introduction on prices as is done in agriculture sector models But because so many other structural changes are occurring at the same time this price effect is not considered to be very important at least in the initial stages of technology development
10 Those advocating these types of planting density date or other culshy
tural system change generally are expecting yield increases of only 10 to 20 This type of yield increase is very difficult for the farmer to see and could easily disappear as on-farm trials change from researcher to farmer management New agronomic system changes are expected to take time for farmers to master if a series of component part changes are implied andor timeliness of the relevant operations is also important Hence the yield differences of these minimal changes even if they truly exist will often disappear in the learning-by-doing effect
11 Once farmers are utilizing moderate purchased input levels it will be
very important to systematically evaluate the im-pact of these marginal changes especially new varieties and more intensive cropping systems
12 By removing all input subsidies and other price distortions or intervenshy
tions governments and international agencies can calculate the real resource cost of various alternative policies and ascertain their comshyparative advantage in international production This analysis assumes that the re are no differences between private and public benefits or between private and social costs Hence there are no externalities in the system
30
Removing these price and cost distortions will facilitate economic calculations and in the long run welfare gains are expected In the short run the elimination of input subsidies is expected to sharply slow down the agricultural developmenc process and to put upward presshysure on agricultural product prices and the demand for agricultural import substitutes Developed country exporters of agricultural proshyducts would be the principal beneficiaries of higher agricultural import levels in the developing countries
13 In the river valleys and irrigated regions human health constraints may be the principal factor limiting agricultural development River blindshyness has been a serious problem in many of the Burkina Faso river valshyleys An erradiation program has now at least temporarily eliminated this problem In the irrigation projects the widespread incidence of bilharzia substantially reduces labor productivity
14 By successful we mean passing the three evaluation criteria recommended
in Figure 5 Clearly agricultural scientists will also be interested in those technologies being passed on to the Extension Service for diffusion We are stressing here their interest in feedback in order to resolve those problems in their technologies which came to their attenshytion because of the results of the on-farm trials
15 We would expect that those agencies principally concerned with varietal
development would emphasize varietal testing in their on-farm trials The on-farm trials are important activities for institutions primarily concerned with breeding Nevertheless a third party such as a univershysity may be necessary in order to carry out the farm trials without preconceived notions which would emphasize certain varieties or other types of technology
16 The differences are so great between the experiment station and the
farm-level definitions of constraints and relevant research problems that one of the field agronomists from this project even proposed that all agricultural scientists working on the experiment stations in the WASAT should have some involvement with on-farm trials
CHAPTER IV
PRODUCTION CONSTRAINTS OF THE WASAT FARMING SYSTEMS
The WASAT is not as well endowed with a climate or soil resource base as most of the populated areas of the world This chapter elaborates on the major physical and resource endowment constraints of the WASAT and describes cropping patterns farmers goals and objectives and modern input use
Climate
The WASAT region is a transition zone betwien the northern desert and the humid tropics of the south There are three distinct seasons warm and dry from November to March hot and dry during March through May and hot and wet from May to October Harmattan conditions (hot dry dustshyladen winds) exist during the November to March period
Rainfall in the May to October agricultural season over the entire WASAT ranges from 200 mm in the north to 1300 mm in the south with potenshytial evapotranspiration ranging between 2200 mm in the north to 1600 mm in the south (Nicou and Charreau 1985) Since the mid-sixties annual rainshyfall has averaged 100 to 150 mm below the long-term average within each isohyet (Dancette 1977) Thus the isohyet levels delineating the climatic zones in Figure 1 would be at lower levels if more recent rainfall data were used
Rainfall is extremely variable over time and over space Nicholson (1982) states that in normal rainfall years 40 to 50 of individual weather stations experience below-normal rainfall Rainfall vaiiabiltty at individual stations ranges from 15 of the long-term average in the south to 50 in the north (Nicholson 1982) Also the number of below-normal years tend to exceed the number of wet years The long-term average rainshyfall is inflated by a few extremely wet years (Nicholson 1982) The area also has a long history of intermittent droughts and wet spells
Soil Fertility and Water Retention
Soils in the WASAT are predominantly sandy red alfisols low in organic matter and exchangeable cations with a soil texture high in sand (60-95) anO low in silt and clay content (Matlon 1985 Nicou and Charreau 1985) The soils tend to be deficient in phosphorous and nitroshygen Long fallow periods can restore soil fertility but phosphorous and nitrogen deficiency symptoms have been observed shortly after the land is put into cultivation (IFDC 1985) The phosphorous sorption capacity of WASAT soils vary widely but is generally low decreasing the agronomiceffectiveness of phosphate fertilizers (IFDC 1985) Nitrogen can be quickly exhausted in these fragile poorly buffered soils (IFDC 1985) The soils contain only weak aggregates and in many regions the soil surface
32
dries after a rain and forms a crust which restrict water infiltration and aeration (Kowal and Kassam 1978) These soil properties combined with high intensity rainfall lead to water retention and erosion problems In the dry season the soils harden making pre-plant cultivation difficult and almost impossible by traditional methods until there is a major rain (Kowal and Kassam 1978)
The quality of the land in terms of fertility and organic matter conshytent varies greatly in tarmers fields Land quality and soil water retenshytion are highly correlated with topography and distance from the compound area around the living quarters The quality and water retention ability of the soil deteriorates as one moves farther up the toposequence and away from the compound area thus requiring different cropping and management strategies by the farmer (Stoop et al 1982)
Although more productive vertisols and hydromorphic soils are found along river valleys the presence of Onchoceriasis (river blindness) in many of the river valleys has made them uninhabitable in the past
Labor Availability
Labor shortages exist in the critical planting and weeding periods (FSUSAFGRAD 1983) Planting of millet and sorghum begins with the first significant rains in May or June This is followed by rice groundnut and maize planting in combination with the sorghum and millet first weeding activities Depending on the level and distribution of rainfall fields may require resowing transplanting andor thinning Usually a second and at times a third weeding will follow Most of the plantingfirst weeding period occurs over a six-week time period with the household supshyplying the labor
When farmers were asked why they did not hire more labor for first weeding their reply was Because there is no one to hire then everyone is busy with their own weeding (FSUSAFCRAD 1983) Households do not genershyally hire labor from other households because cash and food reserves at this time of year are at their lowest and not sufficient to pay laborers a wage rate (or its equiyalent in food) equal to the opportunity cost of working their own land Also few laborers are in the labor market at this time because households have control of their family labor and utilize it for their own production needs (Kowal amp Kassam 1978)
Cropping Patterns
Cereal production is the dominant agricultural activity in the WASAT (Kowal and Kassam 1978) Regional cropping patterns in the WASAT differ-shythe most notable difference being the increasing dominance of millet over sorghum maize and root crops as soil fertility and rainfall decrease from south to north About 80 of the cropped area in the WASAT is intershycropped--cerealcereal and cereallegume are the most common (Fussell and Serafini 1985 Sawadogo et al 1985) Cowpeas are usually intercropped
33
with millet or sorghum at low densities of 1000 to 8000 plants per hectare The main cash crops in the south include cotton groundnuts and bambara nuts Small amounts of rice are grown in the bottom lands and irrigated areas
At the farm level land quality the water retention ability of the soil and labor availability are the dominant factors in farmers cropping decisions (Lang et al 1983) The staple crops of maize sorghum and millet receive the highest priority of land and labor resources Drought tolerance of the crops are matched with soil fertility and toposequence Maize which is less tolerant to drought and low soil fertility than either sorghum or millet is planted near the villagle compound on the more-fertile compound field This field ranging in size from 1 to 2 ha is used as a dump for night soil animal manure stubble and other organic material Sorghum is planted on the lower areas where there is slightly more water accumulation and where the soils are more fertile than the poorer soils further up the toposequence (Stoop et al 1982) The more abundant but poorer land is planted to millet which has the most tolerance to drought and low soil fertility Farmers say that in the worst rainfall years some millet can always be harvested
Millet and sorghum can be found growing in the next higher soil fershytility gradient than is dictated by their drought tolerance ability but maize and sorghum are rarely grown on a lower soil fertility gradient Farmers say that white sorghum is preferred because it stores twice as long as millet however more sorghum is not sown because of limited good qualshyity land and because sorghum is more vulnerable to parasites such as striga Maize and sorghum planting is thus constrained by the availability of high quality land whereas the millet area is constrained by the labor supply in the plantingfirst weeding period
In the old settlement areas cereal yields are declining in response to lower soil fertility caused by the decrease in the fallow period and lower average rainfall over the last decade (Lang et al 1984) As the soil fertility declines sorghum is being replaced by millet which yields better on the poorer soils Farmers in the village of Nedogo say that much more sorghum was planted in the village when they were young than is planted now (Ames 1986)
Farmer Goals and Objectives
Norman (1982) states that the most important differences among farming systems come from the constraints peculiar to the region and not from difshyferences in farmer aspirations (which include higher incomes effort reducshytion and risk avoidance) Farmers in older settlement areas have conshystraints and endowments which differ from those of farmers in frontier villages Farmers in the older settlement areas of Burkina where access to land is limited and soil fertility low indicated uniformly that their only goal was subsistence (FSUSAFGRAD 1983) This means harvesting enough sorghum and millet in November to feed their families until the beginning
34
of the August maize harvest that provides food during the hungry period-shythe period between ending cereal stocks and the new harvest (FSUSAFGRAD 1983) When asked to specify other goals and objectives the first priorshyity was the payment of a head tax and if resources remained meetingurgent needs which were listed as medical Other priorities were to reward the family with clothes for their work during the cropping season and to greet their in-laws or arrange marriages (FSUSAFGTAD 1983)
On the frontier where access to fallow land is notl limited half of the farmers gave subsistence oriented responses that were similar to the responses given in the older settlement areas However half of the farmshyers responded that We were once concerned only with survival but now we also think of accumulating wealth When asked What is wealth they replied cattle (FSUSAFGRAD 1983)
The survey results indicated that although farmers in the WASAT in general are subsistence oriented the goals and objectives of farmers difshyfer given different constraints This is evidenced by the total subsisshytence orientation of the sample of farmers in the old settlement villages versus the orientation of those farmers in the frontier village who indishycated wealth accumulation as one of their main goals Higher soil fertilshyity and access to land at the frontier has permitted farmers to look beyond subsistence goals This appears to demonstrate that if through technologshyical introduction some of the constraints to increasing yield in the WASAT can be alleviated the aspirations of farmers will allow technology adopshytion to occur (at some level of profit effort and risk)
Modern Input Use
Except for tuie higher rainfall regions of the Sudano-Guinean region and some river valleys credit and modern inputs such as fertilizer pestishycides herbicides and improved varieties are not widely used in the WASAT Even in these regions of higher rainfall purchased input utilization is concentrated on the export crops cotton and groundnuts FAO fertilizer statistics indicate that NPK use in eight Sahelian countries averaged less than 3 kgha as compared to 73 kgha in Asia (Matlon 1985) Less than 15 of farmers use animal traction in the WASAT (Matlon and Spencer 1985) Animal traction is used for shallow land preparation plowing and shallow weeding but utilization rates are low and farmers seldom are equipped to do more than one mechanized operation (Jaeger 1985)
Neither input nor product marketing infrastructure nor a research and extension service similar to that developed for cash crops in the WASAT pre-independence era (pre-1960) was ever developed for food crops In the Colonial period food requirements were met by the subsistence-oriented agricultural system There was little export demand for food crops such as sorghum and millet (World Bank 1985) Since the late 1960s however rapid population growth and lower food crop yields due to lower rainfall levels and declining soil fertility have substantially increased food crop
35
demand to the point where food security is not assured in most regions of the WASAT Expanding cereal imports have accompanied this trend
Even with the population pressure and increased food demand since independence an input and product marketing infrastructure for food crops has not developed Poor fertility 3oils erratic rainfall distribution and low soil water retention have led to highly variable between-year yield responses to many land-substituting inputs For example the response of fertilizer is highly dependent upon the availability of sufficient water at several critical periods Thus fertilizer utilization can be very risky Similarly iroved varieties have not dcne well under traditional manageshyment conditions (Matlon 1985)
Labor-saving animal traction technology is not widely used in the WASAT in spite of potentially high ratc of return Present internal rates of return of 10 in old settlement areas (Nedogo) and 20 to 30 at the frontier (Diapangou) have been estimated but higher rates of return could be achieved with higher utilization rates principally through expansion of the number of mechanized agricultural operations (Jaeger 1985) Most animal traction farms observed in Burkina Faso mechanized either the land preparation or the cultivation operations but not both Problems of obtaining high utilization rates stein from small size farms inapproprishyate andor incomplete set of implements poor animal health and nucrition and poor management (Jaeger and Sanders 1985) Higher utilization rates and the full benefit of mechanization are not obtained by first-time animal traction users because learning curves can be as long as five years (Jaeger and Sanders 1985) Few animal traction extension programs exist which train farmers and draft animals and thus facilitate animal traction usage
In summary low soil fertility and low soil water retention low variable and unpredictable rainfall in combination with a high evapotransshypiration rate labor shortages in the critical planting and weeding periods and the limited access to land in old settlement areas are the major physical and resource endowment constraints to increased cereal yields in most of the WASAT (Matlon 1985 Nagy et al 1985 Lang et al 1984) The physical environment makes new technology adoption in the WASAT risky The national research institutions extension and input and product marketing infrastructures to support new technology adoption and dissemination are at a low level Thus farming systems on the frontier continue to be bush-fallow systems that rely on available land and family labor inputs with little utilization of purchased inputs Farming systems in the older settled area have been shifting to more millet production and yields have declined and stabilized at low levels
Despite the current situation in the WASAT recent research findings suggest that a Malthusian perspective can be iverted Several on-farm evaluated technologies have been shown to be both agronomically and economshyically feasible in increasing cereal production and others have promise for the future A review of the proposed technologies and farm management practices for the WASAT is the subject of the next chapter
36
Footnotes
Whole farm modeling results indicate opportunity costs of labor in the
last two weeks of the plantingfirst weeding period to be 365 and 181 FGFAhr respectively for manual tillage farmers which is in contrast to the wage rate of 30 to 50 FCFAhr (Roth et al 1986)
CHAPTER V
TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT TO INCREASE CEREAL PRODUCTION IN THE WASAT
Introduction
This chapter reviews the technologies and farm management techniques that have been proposed for alleviating the production constraints in the WASAT This review uses agronomic and socio-economic data and information frGn the Purdue FSU piogram supplemented by other research from the area The FSU program conducted research in three climatic zones with village research sites in the southern portion of the Sahelo-Sudanian zone in the Sudanian zone and in the northern portion of the Sudano-Guinean climatic zone (Figure 2) Thus FSU findings and the review of most of the techshynolog0ies and recommendations reflect this orientation
As each technology is discussed it is evaluated as to the feasibility of its utilization by farmers within the short run (0 to 5 years) the intermediate run (5 to 15 years) and the long run The criteria used in the evaluation attempt to follow the strategy used by farmers in their adoption process (see Figure 5 in Chapter III and Table 1 in this chapter)
Socio-economic research suggests that farmers do not necessarily adopt technologies as a package but rather adopt single technologies or clusters of technologies en route to total package adoption (Byerlee and Hesse de Polanco 1986 Mann 1978) This is in spite of the fact that the largest impact on yields comes about when various methods (technologies) are used in combinition or as a package The farmers strategy seems to be to adopt the technologies of the package sequentially based on availability technical viability in the field economic profitability and risk conshysiderations and the resource endowment fit of the technology (ie labor and land constraints) within the farming system The technologies within the package that best exhibit the above attributes will be selected first by the farmer Other technologies will be added only after the farmer has had positive experience with the already adopted technologies and when the above attribute requirements are again met Thus while farmers can be presented with a package of technologies there seems to be an agronomically and economically logical sequence by which technological adoption will occur Information on the likely adoption pattern sequence of proposed technologies is important for focusing research extension and government programs
In this chapter available agronomic technical and socio-economic research findings are used to review and sequence the proposed technologies and farm management practices for the WASAT For example research findings from on-station and on-farm research trials are used to assess technical viablity in the field Economic budget analysis and benefit-cost
38
Table 1 Present technical and economic feasibility and time frame of proposed technologies and farm management practices for the WASAT
Technologies Present Ayronomic and Technical Feasibility Present and Farm Mgmt On-Station On-Farm Economic
Practices Research Research Feasibility Comments
Available technologies for the short run
Tied ridging (manual) +++ Very labor intensive Diguettesdikes 3 Require materials (ie rocks) Complex fertilizer ++ Risk of losing cash outlayAnimal traction 3 ++ Preconditions (see text) Mechanical ridge tier +++ ++ Requires animal traction
Potential technologies for the intermediate run Rock phosphate + - Solubility amp application problems Improved varieties ++ + - Requires upgrading of physical
environment
Potential technologies for the long run Manurecomposting +++ ++ Small and finite supply Mulch +++ ++ Small and finite supply Plowinggreen manuring ++ ++ - Poor draft animal health
Herbicides ++ ++ - Further research requiredBiol nitrogen fixation + - Further research requir Crop associations - intensification ++ + - Requires upgrading of physical - alley cropping ++ + - environment and improved
varieties Labor and management
intensive
++ High degree of feasibility--research supports a very good agronomic response or is technically very
feasible ++ Feasible--good agronomic response or technically feasible + Limited feasibility--agronomic results often inconsistent - Not feasible--little evidence to support a good agronomic response or technical feasibility
HaHighly profitable at present
= Profitable at present = Not always profitable at pres(ent
- NHot economically feasible at present
3 Not researched at the on-station level
4 Can be feasible for sole cropping but problems with mixture of broad and slender leaf plants in crop associations
39
ratios are used to determine economic profitability Research irial results and the incidence of cash outlay loss are used to assess risk Whole farm modeling and labor data analysis is used to indicate the fit of the technolshyogy within the farming systems Farmers views and comments are also incorporated
Once the technologies and farm management practices are reviewed and sequenced for either the short intermediate or long run the discussion in this chapter turns to identifying available technologies--first for the present cereal-based farming systems and second for a future more intenshysified farming system The technologies available for use in the present farming systems are then further sequenced on a recommendation domain basis
Proposed Technologies for the WASAT
The research that has been carried out in the WASAT aimed at overcomshying climatological and physical constraints and labor endowment shortages is discussed under the hicadings 1) soil fertilitywater retention techshynologies 2) labor-saving technologies 3) improved varietal research and 4) crop associations Table 1 presents a summary of the technical and ecoshynomic feasibility evaluation and a time frame for the availability of the proposed technologies and farm management practices
1) Soil FertilityWater Retention Technologies
Tied Ridges Tied ridging technology was introduced in the 1950s in West Africa (Dagg and Macartney 1968) On-station and on-farm research has shown that tied ridges significantly increase yields (Nicou and Charreau 1985 Dugue 1985 Rodriguez 1982 Ohm et al 1985a and 1985b) (see Photograph 5 page 41) FSU on farm researcher-managed (TR constructed both at and one month after planting) and farmer-managed trials (TR conshystructed 4-6 weeks after planting) have shown significant yield increases and economic returns to the additional labor required for TR on maize sorghum (Table 2 column 2) and millet (FSU 1983 Annual Report 1983 Lang et al 1984 and Ohm et al 1985a and 1985b) Manual tying of ridges is very labor intensive The manual tying of ridges constructed with animal traction requires at least 40 man hoursha (with very efficient laborers) and on average 75 man hoursha whereas constructing TR completely by hand requires at least 100 hoursha (Ohm et al 1985b) (see Photograph 6 page 41)
PJshy
-no pre-plant soil itillage no fertilization Soil scarification with animal traction~Woman planting millet by traditional manual method
-
Left fertilization right no fertilization foreground droughty area in field shy a typical view in the Central Manual construction of tiec oges in researcher-managed trial - mulch applied to somePlateau plots
D II
A
FSU researcher managed trials near Poedogo Water entrapment in depressions resulting from tied ridgesa No fertilization construction of tied ridges at plantingb No fertilization construction of tied ridges one month after plantingc No fertilization without tied ridges d Fertilization and tied ridges
Ad T7 Z
Farmer-managed plots - Left traditional method no fertilization and no tied ridging right fertilization Farmer-managed trials - Left foreground mulch applied no fertilization nor construciion of tied ridgesand tied ridging Right foreground fertilization and contruction of tied ridges one month after planting Background farmshyers traditionally managed field
43
Construction of tied ridges with mechanical ridge tier FSU researcher managed trial Background maize intershycropped with cowpeas fertilized with construction of tiedridges at planting Foreground maize intercropped with cowshypeas no fertilization nor construction of tied ridges
43 - a
Table 2 Economic analysis of farmer-managed trials of sorghum with fertilizer and tied ridges Nedogo and Diapangou 1983 and 1984
1 Treatments
C TR F TRF Nedogo 1984 Manual Traction
Grain Yield kgha 2 157 416 431 652
Yield Gain Above Control kgha - 259 274 495
Gain in Net Revenue FCFAha 3 - 23828 13275 33607
Returnhr of Additional Labor FCFA4 238 140 172- Farmers Whio Would Have Lost Cash - 0 27 9
1aedogo 1983 Manual Traction Grain Yield kgha 430 484 547 851 Yield Gain Above Control kgha - 54 117 421 Gain in Net Revenue FCFAha - 3510 -2285 17475 Returnhr of Additional Labor FCFA - 35 - 90 Farmers Who Would Have Lost Cash - 0 66 0
Diapangou 1984 Donkey Traction Grain Yield kgha 498 688 849 1133 Yield Gain Above Control kgha - 190 351 635 Gain in Net Revenue FCFAha - 17480 20359 46487 Returnhr of Additional Labor FCFA - 233 214 273 Farmers Who Would Have Lost Cash shy 0 21 0
Diapangou 1983 Donkey Traction Grain Yield kgha 481 522 837 871 Yield Gain Above Control kgha - 71 356 390 Gain in Net Revenue FCFAha - 6532 20819 23947Returnhr of Additional Labor FCFA - 87 219 141 Farmers Who Would Have Lost Cash - 0 16 12
Source Ohm et al 19851) and Lang et al 1984 Similar results were obtained at three other sites in Burkina
1 C = Control (no tied ridges or fertilizer) TR = tied ridges constructed at second weeding F = fertilizer 100 kgha 14-23-15 applied in band 10-15 cm from row at first weeding plus 50 gla urea applied in pockets 10-15 cm from seed pockets at second weeding
2 The standard error and CV (in parentheses) starting with Nedogo 1984 and conshy
tinUing through to Diapangon 1983 are 75 (43) 121 (29) 46 (18) and 43 (22) respectively Net Revenue = yield gaiii x grain price (65 and 92 FCFAkg in 1983 and 1984) minus fertilizer cost (62 and 78 CFAkg for 14-23-15 and 60 and 66 FCFAkg for urea in 1983 and 1984--fertili C prices are subsidized 40 to 50) Includes interest rate charge for six months at rate of 15 1 US dollar = 381 FCFA in 1983 and 436 FCFA in 1984 Net Revenue + additional labor of tied ridging and fertilizer application Manual and donkey traction require 100 and 75 hours of additional laborha for tied ridging respectively Fertilizer application requires 95 additional hoursha
44
Tied ridge construction has the advantage that no cash outlay is reshyquired if family labor is utilized However a survey of technology adoption by farmers in FSU villages indicated that the number of farmers constructing tied ridges and the hectarage of tied ridge construction outshyside the trial plots were small--an average of 032 hectaresfarmer with the largest being 10 hectare (Ohm et a] 1985b) When questioned farmers indicated that thev would like to construct more TR but they did not have sufficient family Iabo I ir ing from an outside labor pool is limited at the time tied ridges mu be coumstructed because the active labor force of all households is fully occupied with work in their own fields Linear programming representative farm models (Table 3 column 2) also indicate that labor availab i i ty const rainos prevent the manual tying of animal traction constructed ridges from beilng ut ilized on the entire farm
Another limitation is that tied ridging does not work well on sandy soils because the ties tend to break down in heavy rain Nevertheless aim estimated 40 of the presently cultivated land in Burkina and 15 in Mali appears to be suitable for tied ridging This represents 12 million hecshytares (Burns 1985) Tied ridges have been shown to be both agronomically and economicaly feasih Ic as a technology applicable at the present time to increase cereal product ion in the WASAT However the labor constraint requires a search for labor- saving technoloies
I)iguettesdikes There are various water conservationerosion methods in addition to tied ridges that are or could be used in the WASAT The construction of diguettes although not as effective in retaining water as tied ridges is a water conservation method that has been investigated Diguettes are barriers 10 to 15 cm high mainly made of rocks and placed on field contour lines 10 to 50 meters apart The barriers are permeable ard slow rainfall runoff to allow for increased infiltration They have imshyproved water retention and signiicantly increased yields in the norther[ (Yatenga) region of Burkina (Wright 1985) This technology has the advarshytage that it can be constructed in off peak labor periods with family labor and is not as labor intensive as tied ridging However rocks (the prinshycipal material) or other material in some regions are not available to conshystruct the diguettes Economic analysis indicates that the returns in the first year alone are greater than the labor bill (at the going wage rate) of constructing the diguettes In Burkina Faso local government agencies have constructed large dikes and barriers to control water flow at the village level Although diguettes and other forms of water retention and control require further research thme large dikes and diguettes are technologies that could be used at present
Complex Themical Fertilizers Under on-station and on-farm conditions significant yield increases for maize sorghum and millet have been obtained using complex mineral fertilizers (Pieri 1985 Ohm et al 1985b FSU Annual Reports) Yield response to fertilizer is however highly variable between sites and years (Spencer 1985) Nevertheless some researchers sugsest that continuous cropping using chemical fertilizers is potentially possible in the WASAT (see Pier 1985 p 77 for a literature review
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
45
Table 3 Whole farm modeling analysis of tied ridging with donkey tracshytion Central Plateau Burkina Faso
Tied-Ridging Technology Traditional Tied with Machine Management Tied by Two One
Variable (donkey) Hand Passes Pass -------------------- hectares---------------------
Total Area Cultivated 55 56 56 55 Maize
Traditional 20 - - -With Tied Ridges 20 20 20
Red Sorghum Traditional 60 - - -With Tied Ridges 60 60 60
White Sorghum Traditional 80 51 With Tied Ridges 29 80 80
Millet Traditional 318 315 315 184 With Tied Ridges - 33 164
Peanuts 76 85 53 43
Total Cereals Production ---------------------- kgs------------------------Per Househol 2103 2436 2651 2737 Per Resident 150 174 189 196
Net Farm Income 3 000s FCFA-------------------Per Household 2153 2462 2535 2622 Per Worker 308 352 362 375
1 Labor times of 75 man hoursha for tying of the ridges by hand 20 man
hoursha to machine tie with two passes and 2 aan hours to machine tie with one pass Yield estimates in kgsha for traditional practices and the technical intervention of tied ridging are as follows maize (1090 to 1730) red sorghum (672 to 940) white sorghum (472 to 660) and milshylet (320 to 415) 1985 fertilizer and grain prices were used
2 Based on 14 residentshousehold Annualized cost of 4400 FCFA for tied-ridging machine subtracted in colshyumns 3 and 4 Based on 7 active workershousehold
46
and references) Decreases in yield and fertilizer efficiency however have been observed after two to five years of continuous cropping where organic matter has not been incorporated into the soil (Pieri 1985)
In Burkina Faso on-farm researcher-managed trials indicate that the response of maize yields to tertilizer on the relatively high fertilitycompound soils was not economically profitable (1982 FSU Annual Report 1983) On-farm farmer-managed trials indicated that fertilizer can be profitable when using fertilizer alone on sorghum (Table 2 column 3) There is however considerable risk for the farmer of losing the cash outshylay when fertilizer is used alone as demonstrated by the percentage of farmers who would have lost cash in Table 2 column 3 Both yield and profitability substantially inicrease however when tied ridges and fertilshyizer are used in combination as indicated in Table 2 column 4 Also as shown in column 4 the risk of losing the cash outlay from the purchase of fertilize substantially decreases when fertilizer and TR are used in comshybination Fertilizer in combination with TR for millet on millet land has also been shown to be profitable with only a modera e risk of farmers losshying the fertilizer cash outlay (Ohm et al 1985a)
A survey of four FSU villages in Burkina indicated a range of fertilshyizer use )n cereals from zero farmers in the sample of the northern village of Bangasse to 33 of the farmers in the southern village sample from Poedogo which has better land and higher rainfall In the more northern region fertilizer use is riskier due to lower and more erratic rainfall Average hectarage fertilized in the villages that used fertil zer ranged from 034 ha at Nedogo to 3 ha at Poedogo (Ohm et al 1985b) Although the use rate per hectare was not established field staff indicated it was substantially lower than the 100 kga of 14-23-15 fertilizer applied to most of the FSU trials in the villages
The evidence to date on fertilizer use in the WASAT suggests that comshyplex fertilizers are a technolegy that can be used at present but yields are highly variable and the incidence of fertilizer cash outlay loss by farmers is high unless combined with a water retention technique such as TR The risk of losing cash decreases in the higher soil fertility and higher rainfall areas Empirical evidence also suggests that fertilizer use or water retention techniques such as TR when used alone can be economshyically feasible but that when used together the profitability substanshytially increases Moreover the number of farmers losing cash decreases subFstantially as compared with the fertilizer only strategy
Indigenous Rock Phosphate The benefits of using indig ous rock phosphate deposits in the WASAT are potentially appealling in terms of logistcs transportation cost advantages and foreign exchange savings Workable deposits occur in Senegal Mali Niger Togo Benin Nigeria and Burkina Faso On-station and on-farm trials have however found the rock phosphate to have solubility problems (IFDC 1985 Pieri 1985) The comshybination of the low P release in a water-soluble form that is readily available for use by plants aid the low I-sorption capacity of the WASAT soils have resulted in poor agronomic performance from rock phosphate applications There is little or no potential for direct application of WASAT rock phosphate with the possible exception of the Mali (Tilemsi) and Niger (Tahoual) deposits (IFDC 1985)
47
Two methods are used to increase the agronomic effectiveness of rock phosphate One method is to highly granulate the rock and the other method is acidulation Even when highly granulated the agronomic effrectiveness is low and several years of consecutive applications are required before significant yield increases are observed (IFDC 1985 FSU Annual Reports) After several years of application benefit-cnst ratios were still lower than other sources of phosphorous (IFDC 1985)
Four years of FSU on-farm farmer-managed trials in Burkina Faso using highly granulated Burkina rock phosphate (100 kgha rock phosphate with 50 kgha urea applied each year on the same plots) also indicated low benefitshycost ratios Benefit-cost ratios of less than one with a 50 subsidized rock phosphate price were obtained (Unpublished FSU data) In the same experiment benefit-cost ratios of 13 were obtained from a rock phosphate tied ridging treatment but the benefit-cost ratio decreased to 069 when unsubsidized prices were used FSU cooperator farmers did not like using the rock phosphate due to its poor agronomic performance and application problems due to its highly granulated form
IFDC has developed two processes for the partial acidulation of rock phosphate Acidulation with sulfuric or phosphoric acid converts the calshycium phosphate into a more soluble form Research on the agronomic effecshytiveness of partially acidulated rock phosphate in the WASAT has given conshyflicting results (Batiano et al 1985) Inconsistent results were obtained by FSU with 50 acidulated Burkina rock phosphate in a one year on-farm researcher-managed trial with sorghum and millet (Ohm et al 1985a) The partially acidulated rock phosphate is also highly granulated giving rise to farmer application problems
Few economic studies of acidulated rock phosphate are available for the WASAT When compared with single superphosphate the relative economic performance of acidulated rock phosphate on millet in Niger is generally lower but is not consistent across sites or years (IFDC 1985)
To be agronomically and economically feasible the solubility problems of rock phosphate will have to be overcome The present effectiveness of acidulation requires further on-farm testing Once rock phosphate became agronomically and economically feasible fertilizer plants and distribution networks would require several years to develop A source of sulfuric or phosphoric acid at economically feasible prices is also required (Pieri 1985) Thus rock phosphate appears to be a technology most appropriate in the intermediate run after the technical problems of solubility and applishycation are resolved economically at the farm level
Animal Manure and Compost Manure and compost are already being used effectively on fields near the compound although application and composting techniques could be more efficient (Pieri 1985 Table 11) The principal constraint to the increased use of manuring and composting is their finite supply Few organic waste materials are left once the household and animal feed requirements are met Manure availability will increase only when animals are penned to make collection possible However cattle are grazed on fallow land away from the living quarters and the labor involved in conshyfined rearing of animals is too great Cattle are also entrusted to herdshyers because of feed shortages close to the village As fallow land
48
declines in the old settlement areas it will be increasingly difficult to support cattle near the village and in the area in general
While animal manure and composting are agronomically and economically feasible for use around the compound area at present they do not representfarm management practices that will substantially increase cereal producshytion in the WASAT in the short and intermediate run because of their finite supply Their potential will only be realized in the long run when the farming system evolves from the dominant cereal-based system to a more intensive cereal-foragecash crop system that is able to support more liveshystock near the village
Mulch Crop residue mulch can reduce rainfall runoff and increase water infiltration but sorghum amid millet stalks in raw or compost form mayadd little to soil fertility (Pieri 1985 p 91) As with manure the principal limiting factor of mulch is its finite supply--especially in the northern half of the WASAT The demand for its uses as animal feed fuel and construction materia] leaves most fields bare by planting time and even when it is not all used the prevalent custom is to burn it Moreover crop residues (3 to 5 Tha) are not sufficient by themselvEs to increase soil fertility and writer retention capacity appreciably In addition applications of mulch (10 Tha) can give rise to nitrogen deficiency which can only be overcome by composting or the addition of nitrogen (Pieri 1985)
Plowinggreen manuring Significant yield increases from on-station and n-farm research have been observed from deep ploughing and tillagepractices which change the structure of the soil allowing better root establishment and improved water infiltration and storage (Nicou and Charreau 1985 I)ugue 1985) Most tillage in the WASAT is done by shalshylow manual cultivation (85 of farmers) or by shallow animal traction cultivation Little pre-plant ploughing or tillage is done because of the need to plant soon after a rain (within 2 to 3 days) The soil is genershyally too hard and the animals too weak at this time of year for effective ploughing to take place before a major rain
Green manuring can also increase the fertility of the soil and add to its water retention capacity (Pieri 1985) However this practice also requires deep ploughing to incorporate the plants into the soil To be effective pre-plant and deep ploughing and green manure incorporation all require substantial draft power which can only be given by healthy well fed double ox teams This type of draft power will be available only in the long run when the farming systems can support high level-maintenance of the draft animals
2) Labor Saving Technologies
Animal Traction An estimated fifteen percent of farms in the WASAT use animal traction--mainly for transport shallow weeding or shallow land-preparation plowing (Matlon 1985) (see Photograph 2 page 40) Farmshyers in general use only one mechanized operation rather than using animal traction for all the agricultural activities of soil preparation plantingand weeding (Jaeger 1985) To date animal traction usage in the WASAT can be characterized as iand using (extensive) Some studies have reported
49
significant farm area expansion from animal traction usage Animal tracshytion can perform weeding 6 to 7 times faster than manual weeding (Jaeger and Sanders 1985) Increased yield effects have been reported in the literature (mainly from ploughing) but the yield effects are generally small (Binswanger 1978)
In spite of low animal traction adoption in the WASAT at present it is a technology that is feasible for use in the short run Animal traction can be made more economically attractive to farmers Present internal rates of return can be doubled and tripled by higher utilization rates (Jaeger 1985) Higher utilization rates can be achieved by increasing the number of mechanized operations In the past many animal traction proshygrams have failed in the WASAT because utilization rates were not suffishyciently high Returns to first time users of animal traction in the first years of operation are generally low because learning curves can be as long as five years and is a deterrent to first time users (Jaeger and Sanders 1985) First time users can obtain the full benefit of nechanizatior quicker through farmer and animal extension training and an improved market for trained draft animals
Mechanical Ridge Tier To respond to the labor constraint in conshystructing tied ridges the IITASAFGRAD Agronomy Program designed a protoshytype mechanical ridge tier (MRT) (Figure 6) for animal traction (Wright and Rodriguez 1985) (see Photographs 7 and 9 pages 41 42) With FSU and IITA SAFGRAD collaboration ihe MRT was field tested as part of Burkinas 1985 national farming systems program (Nagy et al 1986a) Yield levels compare favorably between ridges constructed with animal traction and tied manually and those ridges made with the MRT When the two pass method is used (first ridging and then using the MRT) the MRT substantially reduces the labor requirements from an average 75 man hoursha for the manual tyingof animal traction ridges to 20 man hoursha The MRT operation requires only 2 to 3 additional hours above ridging alone when ridging and tying with the MRT are done simultaneously (one pass) Donkeys must be strong and healthy for the one pass method Oxen which are mainly available on the frontier clearly have an advantage and can easily do both operations simultaneously
Linear programming representative farm models indicate that while available labor constrains the tying of ridges manually to 11 ha (Table 3 column 2) the MRT can tie 32 ha when using the one-pass method (Table 3 column 4) and is highly profitable The profitability is further increased with the addition of fertilizer (Table 4) although hectarage under tied ridges decreases to 09 for manual tying and to 30 with the MRT because labor is required for fertilizer application Budget analysis also indishycates the profitability of the MRT urder vaiious prices and goodbad year weather scenarios (Nagy et al 1986a)
50
10
9
3 Latch lever 8 30 cm ridger that allows soil to flow over the top
4 Rubber band (inner tube strip) 9 Handles of houe Manga (FAQ donkey weecer) 5 Latch adjuster (for correct angle and to 10 Bicycle cable to brake lever
compensate for wear in bearings shovels and latch)
Figure 6 The ITASAFGRAD mechanical ridge tier (donkey version)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
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Table 4 Whole farm modeling analysis of a tied ridging-fertilization technology combination with donkey traction Central Plateau Burkina Faso
Tied-Ridging Technology Traditional Tied with Machine Management Tied by Two One
Variable (donkey) Hand Passes Pass ------------------- hectares---------------------
Total Area Cultivated 55 56 57 56 Maize
Traditional 20 With Tied Ridges 20 15 15
Red Sorghum Traditional 60 With Tied Ridges 60 68 60
White Sorghum Traditional 80 70 With Tied Ridges 10 80 95
Millet Traditional 318 315 318 188 With Tied Ridges 05 127
Peanuts 76 86 79 71
Total Cereals Production -------------------- kgs Per Househol 2103 2604 2970 3354 Per Resident 10 186 212 240
Net Farm Income3 000s FCFA-------------------Per Household 2153 2532 2732 2964 Per Worker 308 362 390 423
ource Nagy et al 1985 Based un application of 100 kgha 14-23-15 fertilizer at planting and 50 kgha urea four weeks after planting (20 man hoursha labor requirement for each application) Labor times of 75 man hoursha for tying of the ridges by hand 20 man hoursha to machine tie with two passes and 2 man hoursha to machine tie in one pass Yield estimates in kgsha for trashyditional practices and the technological interventions of fertilization and tied ridges in combination are as follows maize - not fertilized (1090 to 1730) red sorghum (672 to 1236) white sorghum (472 to 913) and millet (320 to 660) 1985 fertilizer and grain prices were used Based on 14 residentshousehold
4 Annualized cost of 4400 FCFA for machine subtracted in columns 3 and 4 Based on 7 active workershousehold
52
Information from farmer questionnaires and field staff indicates that the major problem with the MRT is its awkwardness However most farmers were able to operate the MRT fairly efficiently after 15 to 30 minute- in the field Several engineering features require redesigning but the overshyall consensus of the field trials is that the MRT or a machine similar to the MRT can be used at present not only as a labor-saving device but also as a yield-increasing technology
Herbicides Herbicides could be used to decrease the labor constraint in the peak-labor-demand plantingweeding period (Spencer 1985) At present acquiring herbicides in the WASAT is difficult and little research has been done to tailor herbicides to WASAT conditions Both broad leaf and slender leaf plants as well as various trees are grown in association in the same field and these are sensitive to different herbicides
Economic analysis in northern Nigeria (Ogungbile 1980) suggests that weeding either by animal traction or manually is more profitable than herbicides at present Herbicides will find an increasing role in the WASAT only when cropping intensities are increased to the point where they require more intensive weeding (Norman 1982) and when the opportunity cost of labor substantially increases (Ruthenberg 1980)
3) Improved Varietal Pesearch
Few improved varieties of food crops are used by farmers in the WASAT Significant yield increases for varietal improvement from on-station reshysearch have been observed but a large yield gap between on-station and onshyfarm yields exists especially for the staple crops of sorghum and millet Experimental results suggest that the cereal y6 eld gap is less for local than for improved cultivars (Matlon 1985) Yields from FSU on-farm trials in Burkina for improved maize red and white sorghum and cowpeas rarely exceeded the yields of local varieties of the traditional management treatments (FSU Annual Reports)
Analysis by ICRISAT of sorghum and millet cultivars indicate that the on-station selection procedures under a high management environment (high fertility tillage and water management) have resulted in elite cultivars being more management responsive than local varieties but at the same time inferior at lower management levels (Matlon 1985) This suggests that breeding objectives should include screening and selection procedures that can provide cultivars which also exploit moderate management levels and that there is a need to hasten the process of variety evaluation onto onshyfarm trials (Matlon 1985) With the current selection procedures the full impact from varietal development will only be felt in the WASAT when farmers utilize a higher degree of improved management practices--practices such as an MRT-fertilizer combination--which would not take place until the intermediate run Also even if change ocur in the present breeding objectives leading to the development of new varieties able to exploit moderate management levels these vayleties will only be available in the intermediate run (five to ten years)
4) Crop Associations
Experiment station studies of different crop associations have received increased attention in the WASAT over the past 15 years (Fussell
53
and Serafini 1985) Significant aggregate biological yields from intensishyfying cereal-cowpea associations have been obtained in research station trials (Fussell and Serafini 1985 Muleba1985) Increased legume densishyties however are normally accompanied by serious insect infestation probshylems requiring pesticide spraying The role that biological nitrogen fixashytion has played in obtaining the increased aggregate yields in cerealshylegume associations in the WASAT is yet to be determined (Fussell and Serifini 1985) Studies have shown however that under WASAT water stress and mineral deficiency conditions some legumes may contribute to nitrogen losses (Pieri 1985)
On-farm researcher-iianaged trials indicate that the most limiting facshytors in the performance of cereal-cowpea association intensification are soil moisture and fertility (Ohm et al 1985a) Under favorable condishytions of moisture and fertility it is profitable to increase cowpeadensity but under less favorable conditions the present practice of the farmers seems to be more dependable and profitable (Ohm et al 1985a)Under improved management (tied ridges fertilizer and pesticides) cowpeadensities somewhat higher than those currently used by farmers appear to be economically viable (Ohm et al 1985a) There are however instances where increased cowpea density has decreased sorghum yields (Matlon 1983)
Socio-economic studies indicate that farmers are primarily concerned with maintaining cereal yields and that modifications in cowpea densities and cultural practices that decrease cereal yield will not be adopted bythe farmer (Sawadogo et al 1985 Diehl and Sipkens 1985 Matlon 1983)Labor data analysis indicates that intensified cereal-cowpea associations substantially increase planting and weeding requirements (Matlon 1983)Depending on the planting date intensification can change the distribution of labor demand and reduce the amount of labor required for final weedingbecause of the cowpeas competition with the weeds Although returns to labor can be greater under intensification farmers do cite lower cereal yields and increased labor demands as the prime reasons for not intensifyshying (Matlon 1983)
Limited research has been carried out on cropping associations involvshying trees in the WASAT Alley cropping--food crops grown in the alleyformed by rows of leguminous shrubs or trees--could form one basis for changing traditional shifting cultivation practices (Kang et al 1984)Alley cropping does possess many potential advantages such as providingmulch firewood biologically fixed nitrogen animal feed and erosion conshytrol However it is very management-intensive and has not been thoroughly researched in the WASAT
Some intensification of cereal and legume crops can take place in the intermediate run once the physical environment is improved but significant crop intensification alley cropping and biological nitrogen fixation would contribute their greatest potential in the long run after farmers first increase their cereal production
54
Sequencing of Technologies and Farm Management Practices in the WASAT
With falling cereal yields and the decline of the bush-fallow system in high density population areas the first necessity is to develop new technology systems to increase cereal yields Based upon the information of the proposed technologies as to their present agronomic technical and economic feasibility (Table 1) the overall sequential pattern of technoshylogical adoption would be to use the technologies available in the short run to alleviate the soil fertilitvwater retention constraints ie fertilizer tied ridges diguettes and dikes This would require alleviatshying the labor constraint in the peak-labor-demand period of plantingweedshying through available labor-saving technologies ie animal traction and the MRT
Once the agronomic environment has been improved new variety developshyment will be facilitated The development of these varieties will take time and be available in the intermediate run as compared with the more immediate availability of the tied ridgingfertilization technology combishynation Crop association intensification and diversification and other long run technologies and farm management techniques would then be incorshyporated as they become technically feasible Thus the overall sequential pattern of technology adoption can be dichotomized into a) technologies for the present cereal based farming systems and b) technologies and farm manshyagement practices for the Euture (intensified) farming systems
Technologies for the Present Farming Systems
Production constraints household endowments and household decision making characteristics are heterogeneous in the WASAT leiding to differshyences in the technology requirements and adoption patterns of various households Thus the delineation of recommendation domains can aid the targeting of research extension and government policy and programs This section of the chapter first delineates a set of recommendation domains based on production constraints household characteristics and resource endowments The technologies available in the short run (Table 1) are then sequenced as to the probable adoption pattern within each recommendation domain
55
Recommendation Domains Based on Production Constraints
The labor endowment shortage is homogeneous throughout the WASAT but access to land is not Old settlement high-population-density areas exhibit limited to zero fallow rotation due to the limited access to land In general land quality and yield in the older settlement areas is lower than on the frontier which has access to land ind utilizes the traditional bush-fallow system Both intensification and extensification options are available on the frontier whereas only the intensification options are available in the old settlement areas due to the limited access to land Thus technology adoption choices are different in the two areas and a delineation can be made on a population density basis as follows
A Old settlementhigh-population-density areas (ie Central Plateau Burkina Faso)
B Frontierlow-population-density areas
Recommendation domains can also be made on an agroclimatic basis Higher rainfall and relatively higher soil fertility in a general north to south direction within the WASAT vary technology requirements and expected adoption patterns
Recommendation Domains Based on Household Characteristics and Endowments
Farmers have been found to be mainly risk averse (Binswanger 1980 Dillon and Scandizzo 1978) However the risk aversion of farmers within a group may range between high risk aversion and low risk avoidance depending on their initial endowments ie wealth Theoretically the risk that a household will assume is positively correlated with household wealth-shywealth being largely embodied in livestock holdings (mainly cattle) Wealth can also be considered positively correlated with the ability of a household to invest in purchased inputs or absorb larger losses in a poor rainfall season Household characteristics are further delineated into the type cf traction (manual or animal) presently being used This leads to the following recommendation domains Ysed on the household characteristics of risk wealth and type of traction
I A high risk aver3e low wealth manual tillage household--may only adopt low riT technologies and has limited ability to buy purshychased inputs
II A low risk averse high wealth animal traction household--chance of technology adoption higher due to the greater ability to buy purchased inputs
III A low risk averse high wealth manual traction household--chance of technology adoption higher due to greater ability to buy purshychased inputs but has not yet made the transition to animal traction
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Six recommendation domains are presented in Table 5 based upon the household characteristics and population density (access to land) typoloshygies described earlier The recommendation domains are for the 500 to 900 mm annual rainfall regions The potential sequential adoption patterns of the available technologies in the short run for the present cereal based farming systems--complex fertilizers tied ridging animal traction and the MRT--are presented in Table 5 for each recommendation domain The sequencing patterns of the technologies for each recommendation domain are based on the previous discussion of farmers adoption strategies where technologies are adopted singly or in clusters in a logical agronomic and economR sequence This is discussed for each recommendation domain below
IA High Risk Averse Central Plateau Manual Households
With limited access to land limited ability to buy purchased inputs and high risk aversion the opportunities for the household in the first stage of technology adoption are to manually construct tied ridges and use other water retention techniques such as diguettes which use available famshyily labor Linear programming (LP) results indicate that up to 1 hectare could be put in tied ridges manually by the average household which would increase production and income (Table 3 column 1) Also survey results indicated that households used tied ridging at FSU village sites and did tied ridging between 13 and 1 hectare per household (Ohm et al 1985a) Tied ridging is agronomically feasible and economically profitable For this highly risk averse group tied ridging is especially attractive beshycause there is no ris 5of losing a cash outlay with only family labor being utilized for ridging
The next step in the sequence of technology adoption would involve a cash outlay Fertilizer is an option on the land in tied ridges espeshycially in the more southern regions of the WASAT where rainfall is higher Fertilizer use although profitable (Table 2 column 4 Nedogo) would be limited by the small hectarage under tied ridges and the tendency of this group of farmers to avoid risks
Animal traction in combination with the MRT would seem to be the next step in the sequence This combination is not only labor saving but yield increasing as well The addition of the MRT to the machinery complement increases the internal rate of return from 10 for animal traction fWeedshying) alone (Jaeger 1984) to between 30-40 on the Central Plateau LP analysis (Table 3 column 4) indicates that the combination of animal tracshytion and the MRT enables the construction of tied ridges on up to 65 of available cereal land on the average or representative farm and increases total cereals production and income above that of traditional practices and
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Table 5 Recommendation domains and likely sequential adoption patterns of technologies in the WASAT
1 2Household Central Plateau Frontier Characteristics A B
I High risk aversion 1 Manual tied ridges-diguettes 1 Animal traction 3
Low wealth endowment 2 Animal traction-MRT 2 MRT Manual traction 3 Fertilizer 3 Fertilizer
4 Improved varieties 4 Improved varieties
II Low risk aversion 1 Fertilizer 1 MRT High wealth endowment 2 MRT 2 Fertilizer Animal traction 3 Improved varieties 3 Improved varieties
III Low risk aversion 1 Fertilizer 1 Animal traction High wealth endowmont 2 Animal traction 2 MRT Manual traction 3 MRT 3 Fertilizer
4 Improved varieties 4 Improved varieties
1 High density population limited access to land and in general lower quality land than the Frontier
2 Low population density access to land and in generel higher quality land than the Central Plateau
T MRT - the mechanical ridge tier
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17
manual tied ridging With the increase in income households would then be in a better position to purchase fertilizers Internal rates of return for an animal traction-MRT-fertilizer combination range from 25-30 and increase production and income over the animal traction-MRT combination (contrast Table 3 column 4 with Table 4 column 4)
IB High Risk Averse Frontier Manual Households
Households included in this category could follow the manual tied ridgingdiguette regime of Type IA households on maize compound land but may find it as profitable and less labor constraining to maintain the bushshyfallow system for sorghum and millet and use animal traction The present internal rate of return using donkey and ox traction has been estimated to be 31 and 21 respcCtively for a frontier area but the rates of return can be doubled with increased utilization thus making the technology very profshyitable (Jaeger 1984) Next in the sequential adoption pattern would be the use of the MRT The use of the MRT by households may not be used conshycurrently with the introduction of animal traction but the incentive for its utilization would increase as population pressure increased and land became more scarce With internal rates of return of 35-40 for donkey traction and 25-30ior ox traction mechanical ridge tying at the frontier could be expected The third step in the sequence would be the addition of fertilizer
IlA Low Risk Averse Central Plateau Animal Traction Households
Animal traction households exhibiting a lower risk aversion and a greater ability to buy purchased inputs will likely find fertilizer as the best option particularly in the more southern areas of the WASAT with higher rainfall The option of using animal traction to extensify is not available because of the limited access to land and thus the next technolshyogy in the sequential adoption pattern would be to use animal traction to intensify using the MRT
IIB Low Risk Averse Frontier Manual Households
As in IB the extensification option of using animal traction will continue to dominate until increased population pressure limits access to land thus making the intensification option of using the MRT more attracshytive--especially in the northern areas of the WASAT where the rainfall is more limited and Aserratic soil fertility declines fertilizer will become more profitable
IIIA Low Risk Averse Central Plateau Manual Households
Households in this category are expected to choose fertilizer over manual tying of ridges because they have the ability to purchase it and are less averse to taking risk Manual tied ridging could also be an option at first but presented with the opportunity of using an animal traction-MRT combination households would probably choose the latter
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IIIB Low Risk Averse Frontier Manual Tillage Households
Although these households would not be averse to using the land-subshystituting inputs a higher payoff is likely to come from extensification using animal traction in the initial stages of technology introduction As population pressure on the higher quality land increases increased utilshyization of the MRT and fertilizer would be expected
In summary different sequential adoption patterns exist for the difshyferent recommendation domains Adoption is expected to be more rapid by those in the low risk aversehigh wealth categories Given the present levels of research exteksion and government program support some groups such as the high risk averselow wealth old settlement farmers may never adopt any of the technologies
Tied ridging chemical fertilizer and animal traction have all been potentially available to farmers in the WASAT over the last two decades Yet little adoption of these technologies for cereal production has taken place Our hypothesis for this lack of adoption is that while the indivishydual technologiuts may be technically and economically feasible the ecoshynomic impact of individual technologies for the level of risk involved has not been sufficiently high Both farm trials and whole-farm modeling indishycate a substantially higher impact from the simultaneous introduction of all three technologies including the MRT The combined introduction of these technologies alleviates the soil fertility soil water and labor constraints and provides tilarge economic incentive at low levels of risk
The requirement th t the available technologies be introduced simulshytaneously to satisfy farmers risk and profit levels before they will be adopted is in conflict with the empirical finding that farmers adopt innoshyvations sequentially An alternative is to wait until new technologies are developed that satisfy the high profit-low risk criteria so that they will be adopted individually in a sequential manner Another alternative is to use support programs in view of the pressing nature of the problems in the WASAT Support trograms would have to take into consideration the sequenshytial nature of adoption while trying to achieve total package adoption as quickly as possible Animal traction farmers may adopt an MRTfertilizer package simultaneously given high economic incentives and support programs but clearly for manual farmers (the majority) the combined introduction of animal traction the MRT and a fertilizer package all at once in one year is too great
The main thrust of the support program should be to select the first technology within each recommendation donain (Table 5) and provide economic incentives that make the level of risk of the technology acceptable to farmers For example the first technology in the sequence of recommendashytion domains IB and IIB (Table 5) is animal traction Support programs
60
would be required to deal with the pre-conditions for animal traction adopshytion (as discussed in Chapters IV and V) and provide adequate economic incentives At a later period when farmers are acquainted with animal traction support programs would deal with the next technology in the sequence for each recommendation domain Following this procedure will reduce the adoption time between technologies within the package The supshyport programs should lead to the adoption of a soil fertility-water retention-labor saving technology package within each recommendation domain Without support programs technology adoption of the present techshynologies available to the WASAT will be very slow with some farmers--in particular the high risk averselow wealth farmers--not adopting any of the technologies
Technologies for Future Farming Systems
The long-run goal of technology introduction for future farming sysshytems is to change the upgraded dominant cereal-based farming system into a more intensified cereal-foragelivestock-cash crop farming systemInformation on the agronomic and economic feasibility of the technologies that may come into play in future farming systems is incomplete making it impossible to sequence the individual technologies as was done for technolshyogies available for present farming systems
Improvements in the present cereal-based farming systems will set the stage for a more intensive crop association and rotation regime Given the yield increase from the fertilizertied ridgesimproved variety combinashytion an estimation has been made that moderate cereal surpluses could be expected in the WASAT in the future with the adoption of these technologies (Savadogo 1986) This would make it possible to shift some production out of cereals and utilize available land labor and capital on more intensive cerealforagecash crop rotations--especially cereallegume rotations that could provide biological nitrogen fixation and reduce the costs of and dependency upon outside sources of nitrogen
Feed availability would increase livestock numbers and improve animal traction not only by better nutrition but also by shifting to more oxen power and away from the lower draft donkey power that dominates low qualityforage farming systems This would mean better crop residue incorporation and green manuring opportunities With increased livestock numbers in proximity to the household more manure would be available Although farmshyers would initially adopt these technologies sequentially the process of adoption would be an iterative one as the more intensive use of one techshynology allows a more intensive use of another ie increased forageallows more cattle to be kept near the compound resulting in more manure which in turn may allow more forage hectarage
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Footnotes
It would be more appropriate to measure risk in terms of a time series
variance (ie over many years) as opposed to a cross sectional varishyance method (ie over many farmers in one year) as used here Three years of data make it difficult to undertake a time series risk analyshysis For a textbook treatment of risk analysis see Anderson et al 1977
2 Tied ridges (TR) are small depressions made between crop rows either by
hand tillage or by a combination of animal traction and hand tillage When constructed by hand depressions 32 cm long x 24 cm wide x 16 cm deep spaced 1-12 meters apart are made between the rows When conshystructed with animal traction the fields are first ridged with a cultishyvator (houe manga) which is equipped with a middle sweep to create a furrow This is then followed by hand tillage to make a 16 cm high ridge perpendicular to the furrow every one to two meters The depresshysions catch and hold water after a rain and increase water infiltration and retention Due to the larger water holding capacity of animal tracshytion tied ridges water retention ability is greater than that of manually tied ridges
One exception should be noted Traditionally maize is grown on the relshyatively higher fertility compound land Three years of on-farm researcher-manageu trials experimenting with maize on non-compound land with TR in general did not show significant yield increases (FSU Annual Report 1983 Lang et al 1984 and Ohm et al 1985a) These expershyiments appear to indicate the need to first utilize organic material or fertilizer to convert the less fertile land into the equivalent of comshypound land before putting the tied ridges on it if maize is to be grown there
4 All the FSU economic analyses have been carried out using subsidized fertilizer prices (40 to 50) Clearly the economic profitability would be lower and the incidence of fertilizer cash outlay loss greater utilizing unsubsidized prices
Trials examining the possibility of growing maize on good sorghum land and sorghum on good millet land by upgrading the soil through a fertilshyizertied ridge combination were also conducted Three years of onshyfarm researcher-managed maize on sorghum land trials proved inconclushysive (FSU Annual Reports) and although a sorghum on millet land experishyment showed promise sorghum plant establishment was a problem (Ohm et al ]985a)
6 The observed farmer adoption rates in different regions correlate well
with experimental evidence which sugests that yields are less variable and more responsive to fertilizer and that there is less risk of losing fertilizer cash outlay as rainfall levels and land quality improves
62
When questioned farmers said that they saw the value of fertilizer but that credit and availability were obstacles to greater use All complex fertilizers are imported from outside the WASAT and usually distribution within each country is handled by a para-statal organization
8 An FSU on-farm farmer-managed experiment involving tied ridges and
mulch (5 Tha) on maize was conducted in two village sites in Burkina in 1984 (Ohm et al 1985a p 17) The mulch part of the experiment was abandoned since only 6 of the 50 farmers had access to sufficient mulch
The MRT is attached to an animal drawn cultivator with one large middle sweep The MRT is essentially a paddle wheel (45 cm in diameter) with four paddles one scraping the ground building up earth until it is tripped by the operator every 1-12 to 2 meters to create the tie in the furrow between the two ridges
10 Analysis of five management factors--plowing tied ridges fertilization
timing planting arrangement and weeding timing--indicated that the major determinants of the yield gap between the experiment station and farmers fields were plowing and tied ridges (Matlon 1985) Also the major problems observed in the on-farm trials with the elite cultivars are drought and heat stress related leading to poor seedling establishshyment and poor flowering and grain filling ability Spittlebug problems have occurred on the new sorghum variety of Framida (Ohm et al 1985b) and striga continues to be a problem with most new sorghum varieties
11 The development of hybrid varieties such as the hybrid sorghums bred for
the Sudan (Gebisa 1986) may play a role in obtaining moderate level management response The poor marketing infrastructures of the WASAT however vould prevent hybrids from being a technology that could be used in the short run Present breeding for disease and pest resistance in sorghim and millet is encouraging (Andrews 1986 Andrews et al 1985) and is expected to play an important role in increasing cereal yields in the intermediate run
12 Empirical evidence linking reduced risk aversion with higher levels of
wealth is not available in the WASAT It has been a standard part of decision theory that at higher levels of wealth risk aversion would decrease (Anderson et al 1977) This proposition seems to be consisshytent with field interviews with farmers about their objectives (see Chapter IV page of this report)
13 Not included among the categories is a high risk averse low wealth
animal traction household While this category undoubtedly exists in the WASAT the number of households in this category would alot be large
14 The recommendation domains presented in Table 5 are discussed at the
inter-household level which considers resource endowments and decisionshymaking in the context of a family unit vis-a-vis another family unit
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The recommendation domains could also be discussed at the intrashyhousehold level which considers differences--in gender age and access to and control of resources within the household--which may lead to difshyferences in the sequencing and types of technologies adopted by the various sub-groups (see McKee 1983 Nagy et al 1985)
15 The opportunity cost of labor (wage rate from outside employment) ranges
from 30 to 50 FCFAhr (FSU unpublished survey data) At an opportunity cost of 35 FCFAhr farmers would not have lost money by undertaking the construction of tied ridges (Table 2)
16 Calculations made using the procedure by Jaeger (1984) and adding apshy
propriate costs and revenues based on FSU on-farm farmer-managed trials to estimate the yield increases from the use of the MRT (Ohm et al 1985b Nagy et al 1986)
17 The weekly available labor hour figures used in the model are based on
conservative estimates Increasing the labor availabilities by 10 to 20 for the tied ridging period andor allowing tied ridging to also take place in the following period results in tied ridges being conshystructed on all the cereal land
CHAPTER VI
POLICY IMPLICATIONS AND FUTURE AVENUES FOR RESEARCH AND EXTENSION
This report has proposed that the overall sequence of technology intervention for the WASAT is 1) technologies that improve the agronomicenvironment ie water retention and soil fertility improvement With appropriate policy and institutional support this technology combination can be immediately implemented 2) the use when they become available of improved varieties that can exploit moderate input levels If varieties are developed for the moderate input levels recommended in 1) above this techshynology is expected to be available for farmer adoption in the next five to ten years and 3) more intensive livestockcereal systems in the better agricultural areas and a shift back to extensive grazing and forestry in the more marginal agricultural regions There are many types of technolshyogies for those intensive livestockcerealcash crop systems that can now be productively studied on the experiment station and in on-farm trials so that these systems can be available to farmers after the next decade
The first priority of the agricultural policy research and extension community in the WASAT is to develop technologies to increase the yields of the cereal-based systems dominate the The presentfarming which area focus should be on alleviating the low soil fertilitylow soil water retenshytion constraints Complex fertilizers the water retention methods of tied ridges diguettes and dikes and the labor-saving technologies of animal traction and the mechanical ridge tier are a]rady available for extension in much of the region
Tied ridging chemical fertilizer and animal traction however have all been potentially available to farmers in the WASAT for more than two decades Yet there has been little adoption by WASAT food crop producers of any of these three innovations This is because there was little ecoshynomic incentive to adopt these technologies prior to the 1960s because food consumption needs were being met Moreover there was little export demand for sorghum and millct Hence there was little demand for new cereal technologies However with increased population recent droughtsand the deterioration of the soil quality in the higher population regions during the intervening years the demand for new cereal technology has subshystantially increased
Credit fertilizer and animal traction non-availability and lack of information have all been cited as reasons for the low level of farmer adoption of the above technologies in the WASAT From our perspective the principal reason for the failure to adopt these individual components is that the economic impact of each of the three components has not been sufshyficiently high by itself Fertilizer utilization is too risky in poorrainfall years without some simultaneous method to increase the availabilshy
water the critical times of plant development themselves do not resolve the low soil fertility problem Family labor
ity of at Tied ridges by
65
availability constrains the amount of tied ridging construction It apshypears from the on-farm trials and the whole-farm modeling results that all three technologies (including the MRT) would need to be introduced togetherbefore economic incentive and risk levels are adequate for technology adoption Introducing the technologies together would alleviate the soil fertiltty soil water and labor constraints and provide high economic incentives at levels of risk that would be attractive to farmers However as previously discussed farmers adopt technologies sequentially and not as a package
An option is to wait for the research community to develop new techshynologies that will individually provide a sufficient economic incentive at a level of risk that is attractive to farmers Another option is to develop support programs that will enable farmers to sequentially adopt the available technologies en route to total package adoption The review of the constraints to cereal production and the review of the available and future technologies for the WASAT (Chapters IV and V) point out that such individual technologies will not be available in the short run and will probably not be available in the intermediate run (10-15 years) The pressing problems of the WASAT require more immediate solutions which can only be brought about by support programs to facilitate the adoption of the available technologies If the package of available technologies is introshyduced without special government programs farmers are expected to adoptthe technologies in the sequence given for each recommendation domain as outlined in Chapter V (Table 5) Adoption by recommendation domain would vary with those in the low risk aversehigh wealth categories adopting the technologies first groups such asSome the high risk averselow wealth old settlement farmers may never adopt any of the technologies
Implementation of a support program to increase the present cereal production in the WASAT would include
a) credit programs for the cash outlays required by farmers for fershytilizer and animal traction
b) farm mnagement information especially on efficient utilization of animal traction and fertilizer from the extension service
c) development of the input and product markets
thrustA main of the support program would be to select the technologieswithin each recommendation dolvin that farmers would most likely adopt
described Ta|IlAfirst (as in 5) and provide the economic incentives and pre-conditions for farmers to adopt the technology Once farmers become acquainted with the technology the next technology would be supported in a similar manner and so on until the total technology package was adoptedAppropriate economic incentives and pre-conditions would ensure that techshynology adoption proceeded as quickly as possible so that all the farmers could adopt the total package in the shortest possible time
66
To facilitate new-technology introduction some of the potential typesof research and extension institutional support programs are mentioned below
Priorities for Extension and Local Governments
The highest priorities for extension and local government agencies involve focusing on the soil fertilitywater retention technologies of manshyual tied ridging diguettes and dikes complex fertilizers animal traction and the mechanical ridge tier These technologies should be put forward on demonstration fields (using local farmer participation where appropriate) individually and as packages for each of the recommendation domains
There is a role for local government agencies in the construction and maintenance of large dikes and barriers to regulate the speed of rainfall runoff at the village level Within each region individual households would either construct tied ridges andor diguettes--whichever is the most appropriate for the area Where diguettes are used assistance from local government agencies may be required for correct contour placement
A critical role will have to be undertaken by extension agencies to ensure that the appropriate preconditions exist for animal traction adopshytion The preconditions of shorter learning curves for both the farmer and draft animals and higher utilization rates can be facilitated by animal traction programs Extension agencies could be involved in training farmshyers (technical operation and animal maintenance) and in the training of draft animals until a draft animal market develops Shortening the learnshying curve will itseli increase utilization rates which can be further increased by an appropriate complement of implements including the mechanshyical ridge tier
Priorities for On-Farm Testing
The prototype IITA mechanical ridge tier requires further modificashytions at the engineering level to reduce its weight and awkwardness and increase its adaptability for hook-up with a wide range of cultivatorplow equipment (Nagy et al 1986a) Other possibilities include an automatic tripping device and even new design concepts which need to be rigorously field tested with farmer participation As modifications and new design concepts are developed they must be made available to the extension system and local manufacturers and provisions made for information feedback to the on-farm testing agencies The mechanical ridge tier is an implement that can be made locally and every attempt by the local extension agencies to provide prototype copies to local manufacturers should be undertaken Locally-made mechanical ridge tiers enable location-specific adaptations arising from a local manufacturerfarmer interchange
Priorities also include further on-farm testing of diguettes and of modifications of diguettes and barriers Further on-farm testing across the WASAT of raw and acidulated rock phosphate from all the major rock
67
phosphate deposits in the WASAT is required to evaluate the agronomic and economic feasibility of this technology
Priorities for Experimental Research Stations
On-station crop improvement programs require a change in the presentemphasis on screening and selection under high management conditions--manshyagement conditions much higher than can be provided by WASAT farmers in the intermediate run Thus crop improvement programs in the WASAT should conshycentrate on developing varieties that show stability over time and exhibit a response curve that exploits moderate management levels Selection must be focused on resistance to important pests and diseases as well as producshytion superiority under varying levels of soil productivity and available soil moisture--all of which contribute to production stability This change in crop development goals requires new screening and selection proshycedures and an increased interdisciplinary effort between on-station and on-farm research
The designing of labor-saving devices for fertilizer applicationplanting and other field operations should be further studied for both manual and animal traction farmers where applicable Research on water retention methods other than tied ridges or diguettes is required for those areas where these two technologies are not effective especially on the sandier soils characterizing much of the Sahelo-Sudanian zone
CHAPTER VII
SUMMARY
Whole-farm modeling was critical in identifying the potential effect of new technologies and in evaluating the seasonal labor bottleneck As onshyfarm trials produce more technologies that pass the yield and profit criteria whole farm modeling analysis will become increasingly important to identify the interactions of technology components and estimate their potenshytial impact at the farm level
A major contribution of the Purdue farming systems research project was not the identification of the individual constraints but rather a study of their interconnected nature It is necessary for farming systems research projects to concentrate on the well-known synergistic nature of agricultural inputs and not be satisfied with minimum cost input changes which also have minimal effects on yields or profits
The seasonal labor constraint has been stressed as the principal barshyrier to agricultural development in the WASAT and in other semi-arid areas in Africa However a more agronomic orientation to the analysis of the water requirement and 1oil fertility problems was necessary The combined effect of improved water retention increases in soil fertility and overshycoming the seasonal labor bottleneck with the mechanical tied ridger had a substantial impact on farm income Since the combined effects are much larger than the individual effects it is unfortuuiLte that farmers tend to adopt one input at a ime Governmental support of the combined practices appears to be necessary to facilitate their combined introduction
(0 References
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deDatta S K K A Gomez R W Herdt arid R Barker 1978 A handbook on the methodology for an integrated experiment-survey on rice yieldconstraints International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) Los Banos Philippines
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Dillon John L 1976 The economics of systems research Agricultural Systems 15-22
Dillon J L and J R Anderson 1985 Concept and practice of farming systems Mimeo Department of Agricultural Economics and Business Management Univerity of New England Armidale NSW Australia
Dillon J L and P Scandizzo 1978 Risk attitudes of subsistence farmers in northeast Brazil A sampling approach American Journal of Agricultural Economics 60425-35
Doster D H B A McCarl and P R Robbins 1981 Purdue crop budget model B-96 EC-541 Agricultural Economics Department Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Dugue P 1985 Soil preparation in the Sudan-Sahelian zone Prospects and constraints Tn Appropriate technologies for farmers in semishyarid West Africa H W Ohm and J G Nagy (eds) International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Eicher Carl K 1983 West Africas agrarian crisis Paper prepared for the fifth bi-annual conference of the West African Association of Agricultural Economists Abidjan Ivory Coast
FSUSAFGRAD 1983 FSUSAFCRAD 1982 Annual Report International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Fussell L K and P G Serafini 1985 Crop associations in the semishyarid tropics of West Africa In Appropriate technologies for farmers in semi-arid West Africa H W Ohm and J G Nagy (eds) Internashytional Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Gebisa Ejeta 1986 Breeding sorghum hybrids for irrigated and rainfed conditions in the Sudan Proceedings International drought symposium on food grain production in the semi-arid regions of Sub-Saharan Africa Nairobi Kenya
Ghodake R D and J B Hardaker 1981 Whole-farm modeling for assessshyment of dryland technology International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRlSAT) Patancheru Andhra Pradesh India
Hardaker J Brian Jock R Anderson and John L Dillon 1984 Perspecshytives on assessing the impacts of improved agricultural technologies in developing countries Australian Journal of Agricultural Economics 2887-108
international Fertilizer Development Center 1985 Fertilizer research program for Africa The fate sources and management of nitrogen and phosphorous fertilizers in Sub-Saharan Africa Muscle Shoals Alabama
72
Jaeger W K 1983 Animal traction and resource productivity Evidence from Upper Volta Paper presented at the third annual farming systems research symposium Kansas State University Manhattan Kansas
Jaeger W K and J H Sanders 1985 Profitability of animal traction Field study in Burkina Faso In Appropriate technologies for farmers in semi-arid West Africa I W Ohm and J G Nagy (eds) Internashytional Programs in Agriculcure Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Kang B T C F Wilson and T L Lawson 1984 Alley cropping A stable alternative to shifting cultivation International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) Ibadan Nigeria
Kowal J M and A H Kassam 1978 Agricultural Ecology of Savanna A Study of West Africa Oxford University Press Oxford England
Lang M G R P Cantrell H W Ohm and S Sawadogo 1984 FSUSAFGRAD 1983 Annual Report International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Lang Mahlon C Ronald P Cantrell and John H Sanders 1983 Identifyshying farm level constraints and evaluating new technology in UpperVolta Staff Paper Department of Agricultural Economics Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Lang Mahlon G Ronald P Cantrell Herbert W Ohm and Sibiri Sawadogo 1984 FSUSAFGRAD 1983 Annual Report International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Mann Charles K 1978 Packages of practices A step at a time with clusters Studies in Development Middle East Technical University Ankara Turkey
Martinez Juan Carlos and Jose Roman Arauz 1984 Developing appropriate technologies through on-farm research The lessons from Caisan Panama Agricultural Administration 1797-114
Matlon P J 1985 A critical review of objectives methods and progress to date in sorghum and millet improvement A case study of ICRISAT Burkina Faso In Appropriate technologies for farmers in semi-arid West Africa H W Ohm and J G Nagy (eds) International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Matlon Peter J 1983 The potential for increased food production in semi-arid West Africa Paper presented at the IFPRI-University of Zimbabwe Conference on Accelerating Agricultural Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa Victoria Falls Zimbabwe 29 August - 1 September
73
Matlon Peter J 1983 Technology evaluation Five case studies from West Africa In Coming full circle Farmers participation in the development of technology International Development Research Council (IDRC) Ottawa Ontario Canada
Matlon P J and D Spencer 1984 Increasing food production in Sub-Saharan Africa Environmental problems and inadequate technologicalsolutions American Journal of Agricultural Economics 56671-76
McCarl B A 1982 REPFARM Design calculation and interpretation ofthe linear programming model Station Bulletin No 385 AgriculturalExperiment Station Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
McKee Catherine 1984 Methodological challenges in analyzing the houseshyhold in farming systems research Intra-household resource allocation In proceedings of the Kansas State Universitys 1983 Farming SystemsSymposium C (ed)Flora Kansas State University Manhattan Kansas
McMillan Della 1979 Agricultural development and migration in three villages outside Kaya Upper Volta Department of AgriculturalEconomics Purdue University W Lafayette MimeoIN USAID Contracts AFR-C-1257 amp 1258
McNamara R S 1985 The challenges for sub-Saharan Africa Sir John Crawford Memorial Lecture November 1 Consultative Group on Internashytional Agricultural Research Washington DC
Muleba N F Brockman and 1985D Kagne Variety development for associated cropping In Appropriate technologies for farmers in semi-arid West Africa H W Ohm and JG Nagy (eds) International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Nagy J G and HW Ohm 1986 FSUSAFGRAD 1985 Annual Report Internashytional Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Nagy J G L L Ames and H W Ohm 1985 Technology evaluation polshyicy change and farmer adoption in Burkina Faso International Programsin Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Nagy J G H W Ohm L L Ames and L D Schaber 1986a Analysis ofthe IITASAFGRAD mechanical ridge tier International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Nagy J G H W Ohm and Sibiri Sawadogo 1986b Burkina Faso A case study of the Purdue UniversitySAFGRAD farming systems project Intershynational Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiaila
74
Nicholson SE 1982 The Sahel A climatic perspective Club du S-Ihel Joint CILSS and OECD publication
Nicou R and C Charreau 1985 Soil tillage and water conservation in semi-arid West Africa In Appropriate technologies for farmers insemi-arid West Africa H W Ohm and J C Nagy (eds) International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Norman D W 1982 Socioeconoimc considerations in sorhgum farming sysshytems In Proceedings Sorghum in the Eighties International CropsResearch Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics Patancheru A P India
Norman D MW D Newman and I Ouedraogo 1981 Farm and villageproduction systems in the semi-arid tropics of West Africa An intershypretive review of research ICRISAT Research Bulletin No 4International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics(ICRISAT) Patancheru Andhra Pradesh India
Ogungbile A 0 1980 An evaluation of sole-crop production technology on small farms in northern Nigeria under different farm power sources A multiperiod linear programming approach PhD dissertation Iowa State University Ames Iowa
Ohm Herbert W and Joseph G Nagy (eds) 1985 Appropriate technologiesfor farmers in semi-arid West Africa Proceedings of a workshop April2-5 Ouagadougou Burkina Faso IPIA Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana (English and French)
Ohm Herbert W Joseph G Nagy and Christopher Pardy 1985a FSUSAFGRAD 1984 Annual Report International Programs in AgriculturePurdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Ohm Herbert W Joseph C Nagy and Sibiri Sawadogo 1985b Complimenshytary effects of tied ridging and fertilization with cultivation bymanual and donkey and ox traction In Appropriate technologies forfarmers in semi-arid West Africa H W Ohm and J G Nagy (eds)International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Paulino L A and John W Mellor 1984 The food situation in developingcountries Two decades in review Food Policy 9291-303
Pieri C 1985 Food crop fertilization and soil fertility The IRAT experience In Appropriate technologies for farmers in semi-arid West Africa H W Ohm and J G Nagy (eds) International Programsin Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Pinstrup-Andersen Per and Peter B R Hazell 1985 The Jrpact of theGreen Revolution and prospects for future Reviewsthe Food International 11-25
75
Reeves Edward B and Timothy Frankenberger 1982 Socio-economic conshystraints to the production distribution and consumption of sorghummillet and cash crops in North Kordstan Sudan Report No 2INTSORMIL Departments of Sociology and Anthropology University of Kentucky Lexington Kentucky
Rodriguez M 1982 Rapport Annuel 1982 Programme dagronomie du mais de IITASAFGRAD Ouagadougou Burkina Faso SAFGRAD International Institute of Tropical Agriculture
Roth M P Abbott JH Sanders and L McKinzie 1986 An applicationof whole-farm modeling to new technology evaluation Central Mossi Plateau Burkina Faso International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Ruthenberg Hans 1980 Farming systems in the tropics Oxford Univershysity Press New York
Sanders John H 1984 The evolution of farming systems research Towards where Department of Agricultural Economics Purdue Univershysity West Lafayette Indiana
Sanders John H and John K Lynam 1982 Evaluation of new technology on farms Methodology someand results from two crop programs at CIAT Agricultural Systems 997-112
Sanders John H Joseph G Nagy and Barry Shapiro 1986 Developing and evaluating new agricultural technology for the Sahel A case study in Burkina Faso International Programs in Agriculture Purdue Univershysity West Lafayette Indiana
Sanders J 1985H and M Roth The development and evaluation of new systems of agricultural production Some field model results from Burkina Faso for tied ridges and fertilization In Appropriate techshynologies for farmers in semi-arid West Africa H W Ohm and J G Nagy (eds) International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Saunders Margaret 0 1980 Farming systems research unit working papersNumber 1 Agriculture in Upper Volta The institutional frameworkNumber 2 Local ecology population and ethnic groups in Upper Volta Number 3 The Mossi farming system of Upper Volta International Proshygrams in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Sawadogo Kimseyinga 1986 An analysis of the economic and sociodemoshygraphic determinants of household food consumption in OuagadougouBurkina Faso PhD dissertation Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
76
Sawadogo Sibiri Joseph G Nagy and Herbert W Ohm 1985 Cerealsshycowpea associations in Burkina Faso In Appropriate technologies for farmers in semi-arid West Africa H W Ohm and J G Nagy (eds)International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Simmonds Norman W 1984 The state of the art of farming systems reshysearch World Bank Washington DC
Spencer D 1985 A research strategy to develop appropriate agriculturaltechnologies for small farm development in Sub-Saharan Africa In Appropriate technologies fer farmers in semi-arid West Africa H W Ohm and J G Nagy (eds) International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Stoop W A C M Pattanayak P J Matlon and W R Root 1982 A strategy to raise the productivity of subsistence farming systems in the West African semi-arid tropics In Sorghum in the Eighties Proceedings of the International Symposium on Sorghum Vol 2 Internashytional Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) Andhra Pradesh India pp 519-526
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Wright Peter 1985 Water and soil conservation by farmers In Approshypriate technologies for farmers in semi--irid West Africa H W Ohm and J G Nagy (eds) International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
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77
APPENDIX 1
Administrative Report
In December 1978 Purdu University was awarded a two year contract with the US Agency for International Development to establish and operate a farming systems research unit in Burkina Faso as one of the components of the Semi-Arid Food Grain Research and Development Program (SAFGRAD)
This contract AFR-C-1472 had several mandates
1 Analyze small farm conditions and application of new technologies to those conditions
2 Formulate strategies regarding development and application of small farm relevant technology
3 Develop recommendations regarding physical research priorities and
4 Design help organize and analyze farmer field trials and studies as a means of performing the above
After several extensions the contract was amended in 1985 to reflect an additional set of objectives
1 Complete the transfer of the farming systems research methodology and techniques gained under this contract to national research organizashytions in the SAFGRAD countries
2 Finalize analysis of empirical research results
3 Finalize and publish guidelines for the methodological analytical or organizational and operational conduct of FSR in the SAFGRAD region
4 In conjunction with the SAFGRAD coordination office complete the groundwork for a West African regional FSR network
The termination of the project occurred on June 30 1986 Field activities in Burkina Faso were maintained through March 31 1986
The body of this report provides a description of the achievements of the project in terms of its mandate This section is the administrative report covering the implementation of this contrast
Contractor staff were provided logistic support by USAID in accordance with local AID procedures this included housing and utilities furniture household equipment and medical facilities to our long term staff In addition two vehicles were provided to our team for the duration of the project These vehicles were financed outside our contract but from SAFGRAD project funds
Initially the Purdue University team comprising an agricultural economist agronomist and rural sociologist were to be provided office
78
space at the Kamboinse Research station outside the city limits of Ouagadougou At the onset the FSU office was established in Ouagadougou then moved to Kamboinse however because the vehicles provided were not very reliable and transportation problems for local hire staff created major problems the office was relocated in Ouagadougou in agreement with SAFGRAD and USAID The FSU team continued to closely work with the ICRISAT and IITA teams who had responsibility for other resetrch components of the SAFGRAD program
At Purdue University a steering committee composed of the departments heads of Agronomy Agricultural Economics and SociologyAnthropology was established to guide activities of the FSU It frequently met to evaluate progress discuss issues relevant to the project and to formulate overall strategy for achieving project objectives
Technical coordination and backstopping for the project was maintained on the Purdue campus during the entire project period Dr Wilford H Morris provided this service from 1978 to June 1983 and Dr John H Sanders from July 1983 to termination On-campus administrative and logistic support was provided by the Office of International Programs in Agriculture under the directorship of T Kelley White and D Woods Thomas Other administrative staff responsible for project activities were Dr James L Collom associate director IPIA and Mrs Katy Ibrahim administrative assistant for the FSU project
In addition Dr Thomas was a participant of the SAFGRAD Technical Advisory Committee (TAG) and Consultative Committee (CC) of the SAFGRAD which met yearly in Burkina Faso These committees were a channel for review of all SAFGRAD activities in WestCentral Africa
During the seven and a half years the FSU project existed a total of nine long-term staff were on site in Burkina Faso for a total of 225 person months (PM)
Paul Christensen agronomist acting chief-of-party February 1979 to December 1981 - 33 PM
Richard Swanson rural sociologist October 1979 to July 1983 - 46 PM
Ram Singh economist and chief of party April 1979 to Macch 1981 - 24 PM
William Jaeger economistcomputer analyst December 1981 to June 1983 - 19 PM
Ronald Cantrell agronomistchief of party February 1982 to January 1984 - 23 PM
Mahlon Lang economist February 1982 to April 1984 - 26 PM
Herbert Ohm agronomistchief of party August 1983 to August 1985 -24 PM
Christopher Pardy economistcomputer analyst December 1983 to Tune 1983 - 16 PM
79
Joseph Nagy economistchief of party July 1984 to April 1985 14-
PM
In addition several short-term technical staff and consultants traveled to Burkina Faso for a total of 185 PM They are as follows
In 979 Kenneth Jones computer specialist at Purdue spent 50 PM to assist our in-country staff in organizing the data management That same year Ms Annie Buryer a sociologist spent 3 months in the field assisting our rural sociologist in setting up the village questionnaires In 1980 Herbert Butler rural sociologist spent 50 PM assisting in the analysis of the collected research dava In 1981 Stan Cohen computer specialist and agricultural economist spent 4 PM in the analysis of socio-economic data Len Malczynski computer specialist also spent 75 PM in the field in organizing the data Iandiing systems Anne-Marie Kaylen MS candidate in the Department of Agricultural Economics spent eight 1PM in the field to collect data for her thesis
Wilford H Morris technical coordinator for the FSU spent 200 PM in the field to provide support to our in-country team
In 1983 Jon Brandt agricultural economist spent 50 PM in Burkina Faso to assist Kirnseyinga Sawadogo in the collection of data for his PhD Thesis In 1984 Charles Rhykerd agronomist and soil specialist spent 75 PM oking with our staff in collecting soil samples and providing agronomLc support to our staff John Sanders as on-campus technical coordinator spent a total of 100 PM in the field working -ith the field economists
Purdue administrative staff also traveled to Burkina Faso during the existence of this project for a total of 45 person months
PM
T Kelley White acting director IPA 50 Paul Farris Head Agricultural Economics Dept 25 D Woods Thomas Director IPIA 150 Katy Ibrahim Administrative Assistant FSU 100 John Sanders Technical Coordinator 75 James L Collom Associate Director IPIA 50
Purdue University also conducted an internal evaluation of project activities in Burkina Faso in 1984 Members of the team who spent one week in-country were
Bernard Liska Dean School of Agricul-ire William Dobson Head Agricultural Economics Department Marvin Phillips Head Agronomy Department D Woods Thomas Director and Associate Dean International Programs in Agriculture
Sawadogo Sibiri participated in the On-Farm Experimentation Workshop University of Harare Zimbabwe (co-sponsored with CIMMYT) February 6-24
80
1984 the East Africa Agricultural Economics Program CIMMYT Nairobi Kenya October 27 to November 6 and in the evaluation of FSR programs with ACPOs in Senegal February 24 to March 1
Three Burkinabe staff enrolled at Purdue University for additional long-term training
Paul Compaore Agricultural Economics MS 1983-1985 Baya Toe Agricultural Economics MS 1983-1985 Kimseyinga Savadogo Agricultural Economics PhD 1979-1986
All have returned to Burkina Faso Dr Savadogo as a professor at the University of Ouagadougou Paul Compaore and Baya Toe are working in the Burkinabe Ministry of Agriculture
All of these educational activities contributed significantly to quality and dependable data collection and team spirit In addition these --aining activities were a significant factor in the transfer of host country technical and research staff to the national agricultural research program IBRAZ
Training for US graduate students was also made possible throughthis project Ms Anne-Marie Kaylen spent eight months in the field colshylecting data for her MS thesis in agricultural economics Also three graduate students funded under the PurdueINTSORMIL project spent eight months each in Burkina Faso working with our staff in support of the project while collecting data for their field research These were Michael Roth PhD Kimseyinga Savadogo PhD and Ann Bukowski MS Under FSU auspices William Jaeger developed his PhD dissertation on the economics of animal traction in Burkina Faso
The Farming Systems Unit project cooperated in the conduct of two regional workshops In September 1983 in cooperation with ICRISAT and IRAT a regional workshop on farmers participation in the development and evaluation of technology was held in Ouagadougou The proceedings of this workshop were published by che International Develpoment Research Centre In April 1985 the FSU in conjunction with the SAFGRAD Coordination Office conducted a workshop on technologies appropriate for farmers in semi-arid West Africa The proceedings of this workshop (in English and French) were distributed widely by the Office of International Programs in Agriculture
Thirty-six research-based technical papers were written and disshytributed under FSU auspices (See Appendix 2 for a listing of these publications)
The Farming Systems Unit project was not without administrative andor logistical problems Included were such things as unavoidable delays in transfer of funds to the field inadequacy of in-country transportation arrangements imperfection in project design establishing FSU relationshipwith national agricultural institutions and international development assistance organizations internal and international political events and the lack of ex-ante long-term contractual and funding commitments Excellent cooperation among the US national regional and international organizations involved in the program made it possible to resolve such issues with minimal impact on project productivity
81
Purdue University is deeply grateful to the OAUSTRC the SAFGRAD and its Consultative and Technical Advisory Committees USAIDOuagadougou AID Washington the government of Burkina Faso ICRISAT IITA and other enshytities for their assistance and cooperation in the conduct of this project Without such the objectives of this ambitious research could not have been attained
82
APPENDIX 2
Publications List
1 FSUSAFGRAD Staff Questionnaire Utilises pour le Etudes Sur les Systems de Production Agricoles Dans Des Villages Echantillons de Haute Volta Farming Systems Unit Project International Programs inAgriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana January 1980
2 Saunders M 0 Farming Systems Research Unit Working papers (1)Agriculture in Upper Volta The Institutional Framework (2) LocalEcology Population and Ethnic Groups in Upper Volta and (3) TheMossi Farming Systems in Upper Volta International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1980
3 Bruyer A Towards a Use of Survey Materials Report on Zone of Zorgho Farming Systems Unit Project International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana May 1980
4 Christensen P J Observations on the Major Classification of Field Trials Used in Farming Systems Research Farming Systems Unit Project International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana January 1981
5 Christensen P J Rock Phosphate Fertilizer in Upper Volta Part 1 Preliminary Report on Policy Implications of Cereal YieldCharacteristics Farming Systems Unit Project International Programsin Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana April 1981
6 Christensen P J and R A Swanson SAFGRADFSU 1981 Research Programs Farfling Systems Unit Project International Programs inAgriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana April 1981
7 Cohen S Costs and Returns of Household Crop Production NedogoUpper Volta Department of Agricultural Economics Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana September 1982
8 Lang M R Cantrell and J IfSanirs Identifying Constraints and Evaluating New Techology in the Purdue Farming Systems Project in Upper Volta in C B Flora (ed) Animals in the Farming SystemKansas State University Manhattan Kansas pp 184-206 1984
9 Jaeger W K Animal Traction and Resource Productivity Evidence from Upper Volta in C B Flora (ed) Animals in the Farming ystem ibid pp 431-460 1984
10 Singh R D E W Kehrberg and W H M Morris Small FarmProduction Systems ii Upper Volta Descriptive and Productive Function Analysis Experiment Station Bulletin Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1984
11 Lang M G and 24 Roth Risk Perceptions and Risk Management byFarmers in Burkina F-aso Paper presented at the Annual FarmingSystems Conference at Kansas State University in 1984
83
12 Rhykerd C L Constraints and Research Needs for Livestock Production in Upper Volta International Programs in AgriculturePurdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1984
13 Sanders J H The Evolution of Farming Systems Research Towards Where International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1984
14 Roth M and J H Sanders An Economic Evaluation of AgriculturalTechnologies and Implications for Development Strategies in Burkina Faso International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana First presented at the Annual Farming SystemsConference at Kansas State University in 1984
15 Lang M G and R C Cantrell Accenting the Farmers Role Purdue Farming Systems Unit in P Matlon R Cantrell D King and M Benoit-Cattin (edited) Coming Full Circle Farmers Participation inthe Development of Technology International Developmernt Research Center Ottawa Canada pp 63-70 1984
16 Lang M H Ohm and R Cantrell Adaptability Analysis of Farmer-Managed Trials in Farming Systems Research International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1985
17 Lang M G Agricultural Production and Marketing Activities of Women in Burkina Faso International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1985
18 Lang M G Crop and Livestock Marketing Patterns in Burkina FasoInternational Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1985
19 Pardy C R Cereal Sales Behavior Among Farm Households in FourVillages in Burkina Faso International Programs i- AgriculturePurdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1985
20 Nagy J G and H W Ohm Economic Analysis of Tied Ridges and Fertilization in Farmer-Managed Sorghum Trials in Burkina Faso Paperpresented at the International Conference of AgricultLal Economists Malaga Spain 1985
21 Nagy J G L L Ames and H W Ohm Tecchnology Evaluation PilicyChange and Farmer Adoption in Burkina Fa Paper presented at the Farming Systems Symposium Kansas State University Manhattan Kansas 1985
22 Schaber L A Literature Review of Soil Fertility in the West Africa Semi-Arid Tropics (WASAT) International Programs in AgriculturePurdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1985
23 Sanders J H J G Nagy and B Shapiro Developing and EvaluatingNew Agricultural Technology for the Sahel A Case Study in Burkina Faso Submitted to Economic Development and Cultural Change 1985
84
24 Ohm H W and J G Nagy (Editcrs) Appropriate Technologies for Farmers in Semi-Arid West Africa International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1985 359 pages (also available in French)
25 Roth M P Abbott J Sanders and L McKinzie An Application of Whole-Farm Modelling to New Technology Evaluation Central Mossi Plateau Burkina Faso International Programs in Agriculture Purdue bniversity West Lafayette Indiana 1986
26 Diallo N N and J C Nagy Burkini Faso Access and Control of Resources in the Farming Systems Recent Legal Political and Socio-Economic Changes Paper presented at the Conference on Gender Issues in Farming Systems Research and Extension Gainesville Florida February 1986
27 Nagy J C and L L Ames Evaluation of New Technologies in Burkina Faso Using Whole Farm Modelling Paper presented at the Annual Conference of American Agricultural Economists Reno Nevada 1986
28 Sanders J H and B Shapiro Agricultural Technology Development in Burkina Faso in Chapter 12 of Y Moses (ed) Proceedings African Agricultural Develompent Conference Technoloiy Ecology and Society California State Polytechnic Institute Pomona California 1986
29 Nagy J G H W Ohm L L Ames and L D Schaber Analysis of IITASAFGRAD Mechanical Ridge Tier International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1986
30 Nagy J G H W Ohm and S Sawadogo Burkina Faso A Case Study of the Purdue UniversitySAFGRAD Farming Systems Project forthcoming in the Florida Farming Systems Project Case Studies Series 1986
31 Ames L L A Preliminary Report on the Evaluation of New Technologies in Burkina Faso International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1986
32 Annual Report (English) 1979
33 Annual Report (English) 1980
34 Annual Report (English) 1982
35 Annual Report (English amp French) 1983
36 Annual Report (English amp French) 1984
37 Annual Report (English) 1985
38 End of Project Report 1986
85
Theses List
1 Kaylen A M Current Farming Conditions in Nedogo and Digre Upper Volta MS Thesis Department of Agricultural Economics Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana August 1982
2 Jaeger W K Agricultural Mechanization The Economics of Animal Traction in Burkina Faso Stanford University unpublished PhD thesis 1984 To be published as a book by Westview Press
3 Bukowski AS Performance of Grain Markets in Selected Areas of Burkina Faso MS Thesis Department of Agricultural Economics Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana May 1986 Utilized some of the data and research support from the FSU project in Upper Volta but was directly supported by INTSORMIL
4 Roth M An Econoimc Evaluation of Agricultural Policy in Burkina Faso West Africa A Sectoral Modeling Approach unpublished PhD dissertation Department of Agricultural Economics Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana May 1986 Utilized some of the data and research support from the FSU project in Upper Volta but was directly supported by INTSORMIL
5 Savadogo K An Analysis of the Economic and Socio-Demographic Determinants (E Household Food Consumption in Ouagaodugou Burkina Faso unpublished PhD dissertation Department of Agricultural Economics Purdvr University West Lafayette Indiana 1986
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The farming systems research activities reported in this volume were conducted under auspices of the Farming Systems Unit of the Semi-Arid Food Grain Research and Development (SAFGRAD) Project of the Scientific Technical and Research Commission of the Organization of African Unity The project is grateful for the support of Dr Joseph Menyonga and Dr Taye Bezuneh of the SAFGRAD office in Ouagadougou The research also involved collaboration with ICRISAT and IITA scienshytists involved in complementary research under other components of the SAFGRAD program Financial support was provided by the US Agency for International Development under contract AFR-C-1472
In 1979 Purdue University implemented the Farming Systems UnitSemi-Arid Food Grain Research and Development (FSUSAGRAD) Project headquartered in Ouagadougou Burkina Faso The project continued until June 30 1986
This end-of-project report covers major aspects of the farming systems research activities which took place
The body of the report is substantive in that it presents major findings of this collaborative research effort in terms of
(a) farming systems methodology in the West African Semi-Arid Tropics (WASAT)
(b) production constraints of existing WASAT farming systems
(c) technology development of increased cereal production in that region and
(d) policy implications and future avenues for research and extension
We chose to structure the end-of-project report in this fashion for a specific reason This was to make available in one place the more important and relevant methodological and empirical findings associated with acshycelerated agricultural development in that region
The administrative report for the FSUSAFGRAD Project (AFR-C-1472) is provided in the Appendices along with a list of publications generated by FSU research
Broader coverage and details of the scientific output of this activity are available in the thirty-six research reports and workshop proceedings asshysociated with the FSUSAFGRAD Project
A life-of-project fiscal report has been submitted to the Agency for International Development under separate cover
We trust that the efforts of Professors Nagy Sanders and Ohm in developing this final report will be useful to all who continue this work
D Woods Thomas Associate Dean and Director International Programs Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 47907
CEREAL TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT - WEST AFRICAN4 SEMI-ARID TROPICS A FARMING SYSTEMS PERSPECTIVE
i Foreword
I INTRODUCTION
II THE PURDUE UNIVERSITY FARMING SYSTEMS UNIT
III FARMING SYSTEMS METHODOLOGY IN THE WEST AFRICAN SEMI-ARID TROPICS A Introduction B Describing Farmers Environments Production Systems and Objectives
The Base Line Study Stage C Designing and Implementing On-Farm Trials D Evaluation of On-Farm Technology Performance E Micro vs Macro Approaches to Farming Systems F Which Agencies Should Undertake the On-Farm Testing G Conclusions
IV PRODUCTION CONSTRAINTS OF THE WASAT FARMING SYSTEMS
V TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT TO INCREASE CEREAL PRODUCTION IN THE WASAT A Introduction B Proposed Technologies for the WASAT
1 Soil FertilityWater Retention Technologies - Tied Ridges
- DiguettesDikes - Complex Chemical Fertilizers - Indigenous Rock Phosphate
- Animal Manure and Composting - Mulch - PlowingGreen Manuring
2 Labor Saving Technologies - Animal Tcaction - Mechanical Ridge Tier - Herbicides
3 Improved Varietal Research 4 Crop Associations
C Sequencing of Technologies and Farm Management Practices in the WASAT 1 Technologies for the Present Farming System 2 Technologies for Future Farming System
VI POLICY IMPLICATIONS AND FUTURE AVENUES FOP RESEARCH AND EXTENSION
VII SUMMARY
VIII APENDICES 1 Administrative Report 2 Publications List
LIST OF TABLES
Table Page
1 Present technical and economic feasibility and time frame of proposed technologies and farm management practices for the WASAT
38
2 Economic analysis of farmer-managed trials of sorghum with fertilizer and tied ridges Nedogo and Diapangou 1981 and 1984
43 - a
3 Whole farm modeling analysis of tied ridging with donkey traction Central Plateau Burkina Faso
45
4 Whole farm modeling analysis of a tied ridging fertilization 51 technology combination with donkey traction Central Plateau Burkina Faso
5 Recommendition domains and likely sequential adoption patterns of available technologies in the WASAT
57
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure Page
1 West African Sahelian and Sudanian zones 2
2 FSU research sites and climatic zones Burkina Faso 4
3 Stages of the research process 15
6 Schematic view of farming systems 17
5 Flow chart for new technology evaluation in farm trials 19
6 The IITASAFGRAD mechanical ridge tier 50
LIST OF ACRONYMS
ANOVA Analysis of Variance CIAT Centro Internacional 6e Agricultura Tropical CIMMYT Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maiz y Trigo FCFA Franc Communaut6 Financire Africaine FSR Farming Systems Research FSSP Farming Systems Support Project FSU Purdue UniversitySAFGRAD Farming Systems Unit IARC International Agricultural Research Center IBRAZ Institut Burkinabamp de Recherches Agronomiques et Zootechniques ICARDA International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas ICRISAT International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid
Tropics iFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development IFDC International Fertilizer Development Center IITA International Institute of Tropical Agriculture ILRAD International Livestock Research and Development Program INTSORMIL International SorghumMillet Program IPIA International Programs in Agriculture (Purdue University) IRAT Institut de Recherches Agronomiques Tropicales et des Cultures
Vivri~res IRRI International Rice Research Center MRT Mechanical Ridge Tier NARC National Agriculture Research Center OAU Orgacization of African Unity PCV Peace Corps Volunteer SAFGRAD Semi-Arid Food Grain Research and Development Program USAID United States Agency for International Development WASAT West African Semi-Arid Tropics
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
Food production and consumption trends in the Third World over the past two decades have shifted world attention from Asia to Sub-Saharan Africa (Paulino and Mellor 1984) The Green Revolution in Asia--the increase in rice and wheat yields brought about by improved varieties and an expanded use of fertilizer and other purchased inputs--has greatly increased Asian per capita food production (Pinstrup-Andersen and Hazell 1985) A similar Green Revolution phenomenon however has not yet taken place in sub-Saharan Africa One of the areas of most concern in Sub-Saharan Africa is the geographical region of the West African semi-arid tropics (WASAT) Current food production and population growth trends have led many to adopt a Malthusian perspective about the future of the WASAT
The countries of the WASAT include Senegal Gambia Burkina Faso the southern portions of Mauritania Mali Niger and Chad and the northern portions of Ghana Benin Ni eria and Cameroon (Norman et al 1981) Troll (1966) defines semi-ard tropics as regions where precipitation exceeds potential evapotranspiration for 2 to 7 months of the year Figure I delineates the principal climatic zones in the WASAT based on annual rainfall levels (09 probability isohyets of 1931-60 rainfall data)
The WASAT is one of the poorest regions in the world with 1984 per capita yearly incomes for countries in the area ranging between $US 80 and $US 300 (McNamara 1985) The region as a whole has balance of trade and balance of payments problems The economies depend heavily on foreign aid borrowing and worker remittances People (labor) are one of the biggest exports from the region--an estimated 25 of the labor force of Burkina Faso works in neighboring non-WASAT areas (World Bank 1981) The region exhibits a bottom-heavy age pyramid with country population growth rates ranging between 25 to 30 per ear and a fertility rate averaging 65 children per adult female The growth in per capita food production (1971shy1984) for the region as a whole is negative while levels of food imports (largely from donor agencies) have increased dramatically over the last 25 years (McNamara 1985 Paulino and Mellor 1984)
The declining food production per capita is associated with the conshytinuing droughts of the 1968-73 and 1976-80 periods (Nicholson 1982) and the most recent 1984 drought Other factors such as inadequate economic incentives for farmers and the failure to adapt and adopt new agricultural technologies have also been cited as explanations for the failure of food production to accompany population growth
(Adapted from World Bank 1985)200 o0 200
ALGERIA -200
20
MAURITANIAOE
SahLan NLMALI 3XJ50n n6038 0
uda n - ne13A v C e 0L 0
10 GUINEA-BISS1U 00 2 00 GUINEA i S h i and Sud -nia Zones
SIERRA IVORY 0 IERA LEONECOAST
0HNI -
CLIMATIC ZONES AEO1 o0O Zones Rainfall
-- 350 - 30-Sahelo-aian P Sahelo- aian NL50 - 350
Sudanian 600 -800 0Komts 200 400 600 Sudano-Guinean Above 800 K oM lers shy
200 4 00
deg deg20 0 100 o 10c0 deg 20
Figure 1 West African Sahelian and Sudanian Zones
3
Since the WASAT does nLt have the manland pressure of much of Asia and Asia has been successful in rapidly increasing agricultural production in its prime agricultural areas it is useful to look at the resource base in this region The present manland ratios in the WASAT average roughly15 persons per sq km (World Bank 1985) compared with up to 600 persons per sq km in Asia (McNamara 1985) The poorer agricultural resource base of the WASAT however cannot support the high man-land ratio of Asia (Matlon 1985) For example in the older settlement villages of the Central Plateau of Burkina Faso manland ratios are as high as 60 persons per sqkm (World Bank 1985) These high manland ratios relative to the resource base have been causing the breakdown of the traditional bush-fallow farming systems Traditionally the crop area was cultivated for 3 to 5 years and then left idle for a decade or more to restore soil fertility In many of the older settlement villages increased population has meant limited access to new land a shortening of the fallow rotation period and the culshytivation of more marginal land (Norman et al 1982 Dugue 1985) For example in the village (Figure 2)of Nedogo Burkina Faso many fields have been cultivated as long as the farmers can remember (FSUSAFGRAD 1983) Moreover almost all the crop residues are utilized for feed or building materials or else burned further exhausting the fertility of the soil Declinin7 soil fertility in the older settled regions has bei disshyrupting the cereal production systems pushing the cereals into more marshyginal areas and encouraging a substitution of millet for sorghum (Ames 1986)
During the high rainfall period of the fifties and early sixties intensive crop production was further extended into the Sahelo-Sudanian zone (World Bank 1985) With the droughts and increased desertification of the late sixties and seventies many have become concerned with the posshysible interaction of human settlement and further desertification (Nicholson 1982 World Bank 1985) While this debate has not been resolved there is no doubt that the resource base in much of the Sahelo-Sudanian zone has further deteriorated The cereals deficit problem has become increasingly serious
All three phenomena--the disappearing fallow system the failure to incorporate crop residues and the extension of crop cultivation into more marginal agricultural regions--lead to further soil detcrioration in the absence of technological intervention In overpopulated agriculturalregions such as the Central Plateau of Burkina Faso the bush fallow systemis being replaced by a permanent cultivation system characterized by verylow and stagnant cereal yields (Lang et al 1984 see Ruthenberg 1980 for other examples of this dynamics)
Not all the WASAT is overpopulated Rather many of the regions can be characterized as frontier zones For example the eastern region of Burkina Faso (ie Diapangou Figure 2) with man-land ratios of 15 persons
I
oBURKINA FASO I Principal Cities 3 350
FSU Survey Villages Dori
OuaigoyaBangasse
deg 00 1i0
Dissankuy FauF
Bdobo ogo NGourma 800bullDioulasso bulloBE -I -NIN
TOGOBanfora
GHANA CLIMATIC ZONES Zones Rainfall
IVORY COAST Sahelian NLC- 350IVRYCASlSahelo-Sudanian 350 - 600
Sudanian 600 - 800 Sudano-Guinean Above 800
(I) NLC NORTHERN LIMIT OF CULTIVATION (2) ISOHYETS INn
00
Figure 2 FSU research sites and climatic zones of Burkina Faso
5
per sq km has surplus land and follows the bush-fallow system of cultivashytion However even on the frontier as population pressure increases in the next five years a phenomenon similar to what is now taking place on the Central Plateau of Purkina Faso would be expected to occur It is becoming increasingly important to develop land substituting technologies for the overpopulated regions And although labor substituting technolshyogies are presently still very important on the frontier at the present pace of developnnt the frontier zones will confront similar problems to those in the overpopulated regions during the next decade
Given the present cereals crisis in the WASAT it is becoming critical to develop or ad~pt new agricultural technologies which will reverse the Malthusian trends In the mid-sixties before the start ofthe Green Revolution similar Malthusian statements were made about the agricultural potential of the Indian sub-continent However during the late sixties and seventies agricultural regions in Asia with irrigation or regular assured rainfall had the mosc rapid growth rates in technology diffusion ever empirically documented Although the resource endowment in the WASAT is not as great as that of the Punjab and similar Asian regions research reported here will atuempt to show that there is substantial potential for cereal technology development in the WASAT
The technology development process in the Purdue UniversitySAFGRAD Farming Systems Unit Project had two phases The first phase was the development of a methodology to identify the pressing constraints to cereal production increase and the testing out on farmers fields of technology alternatives available from the experiment station and from similar climatic regions in other countries The second stage was the continued evaluation of successful technologies over a sufficiently long time period and in sufficient detail to allow researchers a feeling of reasonable conshyfidence in their recommendations to both experiment station researchers and to the extension service and government officials involved in agricultural development The principle chapters of this report (III and V) are conshycerned with these two phases of the technology development process The basic methodological concepts potentially useful in other WASAT countries from the farming systems research in Burkina Faso are synthesized in Chapter III In the technology evaluation of Chapter V the results of other WASAT agricultural researchers are combined with those of the Purdue UniversitySAFGRAD Farming Systems program to give a more comprehensive evaluation of the present state of cereal technology development in the WASAT The conclusions synthesize the technology evaluation to draw out the implications for agricultural policy and for future extension and research
6
Footnotes
Rainfall averages have declined by 100 to 150 mm per year since the mid
1960s Updated isohyets using 1961-1985 data were not available In depth information on the countries and regions of the WASAT can be obtained from Kowal and Kassam 1978 McNamara 1985 Norman et al 1981 and World Bank 1985
At present there is some scope for migration to lower population denshysity areas with better soils and rainfall within the WASAT since health investments have been made to eradicate river blindness in some of the more fertile valleys (Sanders et al 1986) Several relocation proshygrams have already been undertakca in Burkina Faso (McMillan 1979) Relocation programs are costly and represent a short to intermediate solution for the WASAI Also people are reluctant to relocate and leave family friends and familar surroundings
CHAPTER II
THE PURDUE SAFGRAD FARMING SYSTEMS UNIT
The Purdue University Farming Systems Unit (FSU) funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) was part of the Semi-Arid Food Grain Research and Development Project (SAFGRAD) from December 1978 to June 1986 SAFGRAD is a regional research coordinating program implemented by the Coordination Office of the Scientific Technical and Research Commission of the Organization of African Unity (OAUSTRC) The SAFGRAD project works in cooperation with 28 sub-Saharan member countries with the coordination office located in Ouagadougou Burkina Faso The principal objective of the SAFGRAD project is to coordinate and strengthen programs in the semi-arid regions of sub-Saharan Africa that are involved in improving sorghum maize millet cowpea and groundnut yields
In the West African Semi-Arid Tropics (WASAT) SAFGRAD coordinates a research and pre-extension program The regional on-station component research is headquartered at the Central Experiment Station at Kamboinse in Burkina Faso and undertaken by IITA and ICRISAT Another component of SAFGRAD in the WASAT is the Accelerated Crops Production Officers (ACPO) program which conducts regional pre-extension and demonstration trials An integral part of the overall program is the farming systems unit which provides linkages between on-station research and the ACPOextension proshygrams The research and extension personnel of SAFGRAD (including the FSR unit) meet yearly to submit an annual report to a Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) The TAC reviews the research programs and submits the results and recommendations to the Consultative Committee (CC) which is a management and policy committee for SAFGRAD The results are passed on to host country research and extension institutions
Within the SAFGRAD framework farming systems research for Burkina Faso was provided by Purdue University for seven years up to June 1986 In the seventies farming systems methodology was still in its infancy Its mandate included the development of methodological guidelines that could be implemented in host country national and SAFGRAD sponsored farming systems programs The specific objectives of FSU were as follows
1 to identify the principle constraints to increased food producshytion
2 to identify technologies appropriate for farmers which could overshycome the production constraints
3 to develop and implement a multidisciplinary research method which could guide production technology and production research to directly address these production constraints
8
4 to identify the elements of that method which could be implemented in national farming systems research programs and
5 to train host country personnel to assume increasing responsibilshyity in their contribution to research
During the life of the FSU program agronomic and socio-economic research was conducted at the on-farm level in five villages (Figure 2) The pecific operational procedures and evolution of the FSU program are reported in Nagy et al 1986b The agronomic and soci-economic field campaign findings of the FSU program are presented in FSU Annual Reports and other FSU publications
In the final year of the contract the FSU program completed the transfer of its in-country taff arid program to tie national agricultural research institution of Burkina Faso (IBRAZ) FSU also worked with the IFAD supported SAFGRAD farming systems personnel aho backstop the national farming systems programs in Butkina Faso and Benin Through regional symshyposia and consultation the methodology and results were made available to other SAFOPAD countries as well Details of the program transfer and field staff training component of objective 5 are reported in the 1985 FSU Annual Report (Nagy and Ohm 1986)
CHAPTER III
FARMING SYSTEMS METHODOLOGY IN THE WEST AFRICAN SEMI-ARID TROPICS (WASAT)
Introduction
The basic concept of farming systems research is that the research system could function more efficiently if more information on the conshystraints which prevent farmers from improving their well-being was obtained at an earlier stage of the research development process than is common in the developing countries Farm-level constraints can be identified with both surveys and on-farm trials A further extension is to supplement the on-farm trials with whole-farm modeling This chapter will be concerned with all three approaches
In developed countries the two-way linkages of communication between farmers and agricultural scientists function better than in the WASAT due to higher educational levels of the farmers better agricultural informashytion systems and financial mechanisms in developed countries which reward the agricultural research establishments and individual scientists for their contributions to resolving farm-level production problems Farming systems esearch can provide an alternative communication linkage which does not require advancements in general education or major changes in the institutional orientation of national research systems
The clientele of Farming Systems Research will depend upon the instishytutional setting and the stage of development of the technology In the initial phases of the agricultural development process as in the WASAT the most important directional flow of information is to the researchers for several reasons First farming systems even in low input agriculshyture are very complex with many systems interactions Farmers have multiple objectives and constraints and these can vary in importance and evolve over time and even in response to the conditions of the production season (Norman 1982)
Agricultural scientists in developing countries often underinvest in understanding these complex systems and farmers objectives before beginshyning research Further they may not adequately respond to knowledge which is available When farmers do not adopt the technologies produced on the experiment station and recommended to them the initial reaction of agricultural scientists in developing countries is often that the problem of non-adoption is with the farmers the extension service or national economic policies rather than with the technologies themselves
Technology development requires a thorough understanding of the scienshytific concepts applied on the experiment station plus a multi-disciplinary approach to understanding the complexity of the farmers environment farmshying systems and decision-making process The most fundamental difference between the experiment station and farmers fields is the necessary shift
10
from component parts of new technologies as produced on the experiment station to systems with impor ant interactions such as are characteristic of farmers production systems
Farming Systems Research helps to overcome these differences by nashybling agricultural scientists to improve their understanding of the comshyplexity of the farmers systems and thereby become more efficient at idenshytifying and resolving the research problems involved in overcoming farmers constraints Two desired final products are a more efficient agricultural research system and an increase in mutual comprehension between farmers and researchers Another product is the facilitation of adoption of new sysshytems of agricultural technology so that these systems can be more rapidly incorporated into the testing and diffusion program of the extension servshyice
The principal stages in farming systems research can be identified by responding to the following questions
a) What do you do first to describe the farmers production systems How much description is enough
b) How do you plan and organize on-farm trials When do you do it What are the differences between experiment station and on-farm trials
c) How do you analyze and supplement the data coming out of the onshyfarm trials What are the relevant questions to be answered about new technology performance on farms
d) At some point in technology development outside factors (exogenous variables) such as economic policy or the further development of input production or distribution capacity such as a fertilizer marketing system improved credit or a seed industry may be constraining technology introduction How does FSR set up its own boundaries while still maximizing its effectiveness in providing relevant information to facilitate the production of new technologies
e) Who should do the farming systems research Presently International Agricultural Research Centers spend an estimated 10 to 15 million dollars annually on FSR (Anderson and Dillon 1985 p 1)
The following sections of the paper will attempt to address these speshycific questions on farming systems methodology Clearly there will be some biases from the experiences of the Farming Systems Unit in Burkina Faso and the otber FSR experiences of the authors These eperiences will be utilized as illustrations
11
Describing Farmers Environments Production Systems and Objectives The Baseline Study Stage
If the principal objective of tarming systems research is to improve the understanding of agricultural scientists about farm-level conditions then this data-collection or description process must begin with them They help to define the research problems and objectives of the fieldwork and to understand the particular target group of farmers Agricultural scientists need to be involved in farm-level research design in order to provide more information and to evaluate the accuracy of their hypotheses about farmer conditions and decision-making
The utilization of baseline studies for developing research priorities requires the identification and ranking of the principle conshystraints to increased output of the commodities studied This is not a simple process since there will be a strong bias from the individual disshyciplines of the researchers in the definition of the farm-level constraints Breeders will identify varietal characteristics for overcomshying specific yield constraints pathologists diseases economists will point out particular policies or markets which reduce the profitability of specific new technologies Hence a multi-disciplinary approach to the definition of constraints will be necessary from the beginning of the research design process Some investment by researchers in the tnderstandshying of other disciplines will also be necessary
Useful baseline research has included the economic quantification of production losses from various insects and diseases This information helped confirm the research strategies of resistance breeding for field beans at CIAT (Sanders 1984 Sanders and Lynam 1982) Similarly in Burkina Faso the initial anthropological descriptions of faring systems (M Saunders 1980) and the economic analysis of farmers objectives and seasonal labor constraints helped provide orientation for agricultural researchers in the farm trials (Lang et al 1984)
An important issue within this baseline stage is that it is extremely easy to overinvest in data collection and descriptive surveys Moreover much of the literature on farming systems puts an excessive emphasis on baseline data collection so that the research problem identification hyposhytheses analytical methodologies and even literature reviews are neglected The frequent consequence is the amassing of large quantities of data which are only partially analyzed Even with analysis much of the data collection traditionally undertaken at this stage of FSR has resulted in interesting descriptions of little relevance to researchers in reshydefining their research priorities
There are several methods for avoiding the pitfalls of random and largely irrelevant data collection The first is an extension of a method presently utilized by many agricultural scientists to identify for themshyselves the important constraints in farmers fields This involves their going into the field to see farm-level problems in their disciplinary
12
3 area A simple extension is to make these field trips multi-disciplinary and to involve some pre-trip discussion and mutual definition of field objectives If farm-level interviewing remains unstructured the datashyamassing problem can be avoided Multi-disciplinary collaboration is begun and can bd continued in the development of a report synthesizing the field observations Often these initial trips or sondeos have led to more formal multi-disciplinary questionnaire development and surveying in a second stage Clearly with the involvement of several disciplines the demand for data can increase exponentially
To more rapidly interest the agricultural scientists a different technique is suggested At any given time agricultural scientists genershyally have their own ideas of what will work on farmers fields These ideas can come directly from their own experiments from observations of farmers in other regions or from Vhe literature The suggestion here is to move rapidly into on-farm trials This will then give a defined frameshywork for supplementing on-farm trials with diagnostic surveys which have well-defined objectives ie to better evaluate specific socio-economic issues involved in introducing these new technologies tested on the farmshyers fields into the farmers production system
In these baseline surveys of the functioning of the farm and household systems at the beginning of an FSR project the anthropologists and sociologists have often made outstanding contributions to our understanding (M Saunders 1980 Reeves and Frankenberger 1982) When these surveys by the social scientists have been integrated with the research objectives of agricultural scientists their utility has been further increased It is recommended that a farming systems project begin with baseline surveys of farm and household conditions in each major target area preferably undershytaken by an anthropologist (also see Simmonds 1984 p 74) These baseshyline studies and a commencement of on-farm trials in the first production season are suggested as the appropriate way to begin farming systems reshysearch in the WASAT
The principal emphasis here is on moving rapidly to on-farm trials with supplementary analysis to provide understanding of the potential role of the new technologies in the whole farm system The methodology for this type of evaluation will be explained in detail in the fourth section on Evaluation As this type of on-farm testing and modeling analysis is being undertaken further diagnostic surveys are often useful to complement the principal investigation of the on-farm trials and farm modeling An exshyample in the Burkina Faso FSU program after three to five years of on-farm testing in different villages was a survey to evaluate adoption by parshyticipant and non-participant farmers of the new technologies tested
Designing and Implementing On-Farm Trials
There are two central issues in the implementation of on-farm trials First multi-disciplinary collaboratin is essential especially between agricultural scienmtists and economists Secondly the research objectives
13
of the experiment station and on-farm trials are different hence the organization design and arnalysis of the on-farm trials are different from those on the experiment station
True multi-disciplinary collaboration is not easy since each discishypline has its body of literature its journals certain statistical methods customarily dominated by its practitioners and even its philosophical attitudes about research and the process of agricultural development Moreover universities and many agricultural research institutions are organized by discipline Promotions in universities are linked to publicashytions in the high prestige journals of individual disciplines
To overcome these barriers between disciplines strong institutional support and continued personal relationships are both required There is a tendency in farming systems projects to give control of the on-farm trials to either the biological or the social scientists or to compartmentalize their efforts For example the agricultural scientists might manage the researcher-managed on-farm trials and the economists the farmer-managed trials Or the agricultural scientist might ask the economists help in interpreting data without collaborating with himher on field research planning and design
The most basic differences between agricultural scientists and econoshymists are in their treatment of data (Collinson 1981 p 442) Agriculshytural scientists are trained to be extremely careful in data generation to verify results over a number of years and to utilize variations of analyshysis of variance to analyze the significance of yield differences However policymakers generally need new technology recommendations in short time periods and farmers are more interested in the profitability and fit into their operati s of one or two new systems of production than in the idenshytification of the level of significance of the treatments and their interactions
Economists with simple modeling and synthetic estimates (judgements of agricultural scientsts) can help fill the gap between the public policymakers and the farmers demands for new technology information and the output from agricultural scientists Some knowledge of the agriculshytural sciences and some simple modeling are the necessary components of the economists contribution The primary requisite for successful interdisshyciplinary collaboration is the desire of the team to respond rapidly to real world problems of technology evaluation even if the data utilized are preliminary and some of them are synthetic Preliminary results can always be refined and improved with further experiments andor data collection and analysis
One important contribution of Farming Systems Research has been to demonstrate the strategic importance of on-farm testing of new technologies as a critical component of the agricultural research process (for an estishymate of the rate of return to this research see Martinez and Arauz 1984) The primary unit in new technology production is the experiment station
14
However once the component parts of new technologies have been tested on the experiment station they can be combined into packages and tested under a wide range of farming conditions (Figure 3) The synergistic or multishyplicative (rather than additive) impact of combining several factors of production is well kriown in the agricultural sciences The individual factors are identified and measured on the experiment station In the onshyfarm trials combinations of factors are evaluated to identify new systemsof production that are profitable and fit into farmers production systems
On the experiment station non-treatment inputs are held at fixed but generally high levels so that they do not affect the performance of the treatment input(s) Usually the potential for static (increased variance) in the response of the treatment input(s) is reduced by the high levels of utilization of other inputs Experiment station trials tend to study one or sometimes two factors in considerable detail Experiment stations are usually selected in the best agricultural regions and over time due to different cultural practices the agricultural conditions become substanshytially different from those on farmers fields (Sanders and Lynam 1982 Byerlce Collinson et al 1981)
Once the more basic experiments have been undertaken on the station and before recommendations are made farm-level testing is necessary If the technology performance depends upon soil climate insect or disease incidence the farm trials can help identify these factors and estimate the economic impact of overcoming the specific constraint at different levels of its incidence For example fertilizers will have a larger impact in low soil fertility regions and a disease resistant variety will be more impressive where the disease occurs A water retention technique such as tied ridges wouli be expected to work better in the heavier soils In sandier soils the ridges will be more rapidly destroyed by wind or water Moreover the on-farm trials provide a crude estimate of the relative importance of the specific constraints on the farmers fields during the production period evaluated
One method for analyzing these betwcen-farm differences in new techshynology puiformance in greater detail is to utilize a large number of farms for the farm-level trials Repetitions are often made by increasing the number of farms rather than includi ig repetitions on each farm site (DeDatta et al 1978 Sanders and Lynam 1982) One implication of this design is that variance within farms cannot he separated Another is that within any constrained planting zeason a larger number of farms can be included
Another way to handle the between-farm variation in technology perforshymance is to stratify the environments in which the technology is evaluated
15
Experiment Station On-Farm Trials
More Basic Research More Applied Research
Component Research Systems or Package Research
Variance from Non-Treatment Analyze Variance from Non-Factors Minimized Treatment Factors
Repetitions on Same Experiment Replications Across Farms
New Technologies Originate Hrre New Technologies Evaluated Here Primary Activity Secondary Activity
Emphasis on Feedback of Information to Researchers in the Experiment Station
Based Upon Technology Performance on Farms--Request Technology Modifications from the Experiment Station
To Extension Service for Further Testing and Dissemination
Figure 3 Stages of the research process
SOURCE Adapted from Sanders and Lynam 1982 p 99
16
Soil types rainfall regimes or even farmer characteristics can be utilshyized to define research domains However the performance of many new technologies under different farm-level conditions is often a stochastic event The incidence of diseases and insects is unknown at planting time so there is no way to define research domains for these problems If there is a large sample the data carn be stratified after the trials Since it is often difficult in practice to minimize the on-farm performance variashytions of new technologies by defining research (or recommendation) domains with homogeneous characteristics it is frequently necessary to employlarger sample sizes ie more on-farm trials The number of trials necessary will also depend upon the types of technologies evaluated
In the initial years of on-farm testing (early and mid-70s)economists and other social scientists frequently administered the trials Over time agricultural scientists have generally taken over the implemenshytation of these trials This transition has improved trial quality since agricultural scientists are trained for this activity However the failure to adequately specify the objectives of on-farm testing can lead to trials which are only replicas of experiment centtation trials
With the above detailed examination of the on-farm methodologies it is easy to forget that the origin of new technologies is the experimentstation This is the primary unit in the technology development processThe on-farm testing performs an important evaluation function in the reshysearch production process but it is secondary to the primary organ of agricultural research the experiment station Moreover the quality of the on-farm trials will depond upon the input from the agriculturalscientist In the design and the evaluation phases the interdisciplinary input especially fcom econiomists will be critical
The integration of the on-farm and station-based research and their links to diagnostic surveys of the farmers in the target regions and to the operational research utilizing the data resulting from the on-farm trials are [llustrated in Figure 4 As mentioned previously both the diagnostic surveys and the evaluation of on-farm trials have important roles and should function simultaneously The operational research for the evaluashytion of these on-farm triaLs will be considered in the next section
Evaluation of On-Farm Technology Performance
The on-farm trials combine several factors or component parts preshyviously evaluated on he experiment station into different systems or packages Isolating each factor aid its interactions in these trials freshyquently becomes unmanageable Beets (1982) cites an IRRI cropping systemexperiment with 750 possible treatment combinations However 7 the princishypal concern of the on-farm trials is to identify combinationswhich are profitable of factorsand fit into the farmers systems of produccion
17
Target group farmers of a recommendation
domain in a Vagion
Survey diagnosis of farmer priorities resource and environment problems and development opportunities
Identification ofunsolved technical problems and possible new practices and materials relevant to farmers development opportunities
On-farm adaptive research
Operational research for identification and evaluation of materials and techniques
offering potential for problemsolution and the exploitation
of opportunities
Station-based technical
On-farm testing via experiments on apparentl relevant materials and techniques under farmers conditions
Use of existing body of knowledge of materials and techniques suitable for the climate and soils of the ion
Component research usingcommodity and disciplinary
research solvingpriority technical problems
and investigating possible new materials and practices
Figure 4 Schematic view of farming systems research method (after Collinson 1982)
18
The treatments of the on-farm trials representing different systems pass through three phases of evaluation (Figure 5) The first phase is identical to the experiment-station analysis some variation of analysis of variance (ANOVA) It determines whether under farmers conditions there are significant yield differences with the new technologies as comparedwith the treatment representing traditional farmers practices
However technology needs to move beyond yield differences to be acceptable to farmers With a minimal increase in data requirements from the local environment the yield data from the treatments are converted into gross and then net revenue utilizing product prices and input costs This simple budgeting answers the second question in the flowchart of Figure 5 Is the new technology more profitable than farmers traditional practices
Mention should be made here of two frequently cited problems with simple budgeting (a) price variation over time and within the production season and (b) costing of non-traded inputs such as land and family labor Product prices can vary substantially within a year especially with the customary post-harvest price collapse and between years in regions with substantial climatic fluctuations and limited governmental role in pricestabilization Moreover input costs will depend upon government subsidies and the real input costs to the farmer will also depend upon the availability of an input such as fertilizer at the right place and the right time Questions about the appropriate prices and costs to be utilshyized in the evaluation are valid concerns which need to be dealt with in the economic analysis of new technology
Price variability and the effects of government policy and market development mean that profitability is a complicated decision which can be influenced by the farmers marketing strategies and by macro factors outshyside the farmers control Nevertheless farmers need to be able to devise some strategy to make a profit from a new technology Sensitivity analysiswhich varies the prices and costs over the relevant range can be utilized to respond to this problem The simple budgeting analysis of on-farm trials is usually a mean or median estimate The variation in yield pershyformance and prices received between farms is a useful complement to this measure
Some of the relevant inputs that neeJ to be costed for budgetinganalysis may not have a market price In the WASAT family labor duringcertain periods for performing specific cultural operations such as the first weeding has a very high implicit value and may even be constrainingcertain types of output expansion Mathematical programming models take into account the implicit value of the inputs and put a cost on them (shadow price) whereas budgeting treatments make some arbitrary assumpshytions about the labor market Land rental depreciation of the capitalinput and management costs are also difficult to estimate and are
19
Trial New farm results trials
(1)
Are there Yes significant Increases No
Infarm yields with the new technologytech~(noloy
(2) farms be
Ysmore
Is thenwtechnology
profitable than
farmers practices~(multiple
Noaffecting
stratified bycharacteristics
the successful
performance of the newregres-
Yes
sion cluster analysis)
(3)
Yes new technology N Newfit into the No [experiments
farmers production system(programming marketing)
extension service Analysis and diagnosisL
for further testing feedback for andor technology redesign
extension
FLgure 5 Flow Chart for New Technology Evaluation in Farin Trials
Source Sanders and Lynam 1982 p 100
In any of the three stages of evaluation a new technology treatment may not pass the criteria based upon mean values Then astratification of farms is attempted upon an a priori basis For example the performance of a fertilizer technology would beInfluenced by the soil types Ifthere were two types of soils and there was a return to fertilization on one and not the other thenstratification into these two groups would be undertaken For the subgroup of farms where the fertilizer technology waseffective the three stages of evaluation would commence again The subgroup where fertilization was not effective would raiseresearch questions for analysis and diagnosis as Indicated in the above flowchart
20
often omitted in the simple or partial budgeting In spite of the difshyficulties of costing some inputs and the price variation profitability comparisons with sensitivity analysis give substantially more information than yield comparisons
Nevertheless even profitability is not a sufficient criteria for farmer acceptance A new system may be profitable but may require more labor at a peak period than the farmer can release from his other operashytions or the new activity may have much higher capital requirements than the farmer can obtain The third question (Figure 5) is whether the techshynology fits into the farmers production system Whereas simple budgeting can indicate that one activity is more profitable than another mathematishycal programming takes into account all other present and potentialactivities and the available on-farm and off-farm resources Utilizing this technique and the above information an estimate of the extent of potential adoption of a new technology on a representative farm can be made Moreover the farm-level constraints to the further adnption of more profitable nctivities can be identified Clearly the value of this modelshying will depend upon the researchers understanding of the farming systpmand his ability to simplify the model to the essential elements
These mathematical programming whole-farm modeling techniques have been operationalized at the farm level for approximately twenty years so their practical value in assisting public and farmer decision-making in developed countries has been repeatedly demonstrated (Doster et al 1981 McCarl 1982) One difficulty in the implementation of this technique in developing countries has been the computer requirement however the rapid diffusion of micro computers to the developing countries is resolving this problem even in the WASAT Nevertheless there is a necessary time investshyment involved in training the technicians economists and agricultural scientists to implement the se models and to interpret the results
Mathematical programming forces researchers to focus their data colshylection on the systems problems of production in a whole-farm context (forreviews and applications see Anderson et al 1985 Ghodake and Hardakef 1981 Roth et al 1986) Simple technical coefficients representing the relationships between inputs and outputs and the resources available to the farmer are the relevant data sets for evaluation of profitability and the fit of the new technologies into the farmers systems of productionAdjustments in the modeling can be made for more complicated farmer beshyhaviors than profit maximization Risk avoidance can be explicitlyincluded in the analysis with programming Other constraints imposed byeconomic and technical factors can frequently be included
Another step in technology evaluation could be the analysis of the intra- and inter-household effects (see McKee 1984 Nagy Ohm and Sawadogo 1986) There has been much concern recently with the role of women in farm production and consumption analysis more specific considerashytion of their roles in land use investment and consumption decisions are warranted Moreover specific technologies could have equity effects on
21
different types o6 farms and policymakers are often concerned with these potential outcomes
Many other considerations could also be raised such as environmental concerns or the cultural trauma often associated with economic or institushytional change However the emphasis of this paper is responding to the three questions in the flow diagram of Figure 5 Positive answers to these questions have been associated with farmer adoption of new technologies in both Colombia (Sanders and Lynam 1982 p 104) and Burkina Faso (Sanders et al 1985 pp 24-28) thus providing support for the evaluation criteria presented here These evaluation criteria as reflected in the three questions of Figure 5 appear to be logical simple and powerful for undertaking farm-level evaluation of new technologies
Micro vs Macro Approaches to Farming Systems Research
The farming system fits into and is affected by many larger systems Agricultural policy the availability of inputs and the functioning of the product markets all affect farm-level decisions about new technologies and farm-level planning for the development of new technologies
The most conservative approach in on-farm technology development is to assume that all these systems are not evolving and to attempt to develop new farming systems for the present levels of development in the other systems In the WASAT this orientation would precipitate a search for minimum input cost systems such as
a) new varieties used without chemical inputs such as inorganic fertilizer
b) higher densities c) different planting dates d) different rotations e) more systematic use of multiple cropping f) more utilization of on-farm inputs such as mulch and manure
These types of marginal changes are attempts to obtain small yield increments utilizing either available resources on the farm or an input such as a new variety which requires a minimal cash expenditure Oneshyinput changes of available resources such as planting dates and rotations are easy for farmers to implement and observe and many farmers carry on small experiments of this type The observation that farmers are not utilizing these adjustments appears to be good evidence that there are technical reasons for them not to utilize them G~ferally the yield effects of the small adjustments ate either very small or under certain natural condit ns they precipitate other problems irn the cropping system For example in Colombia higher field bean densities significantly inshycreased disease incidence even with spraying (CIAT 1979 p 92)
In the last decade the French international agricultural research institute (IRAT) has been joined by three other institutes (CIMMYT
22
ICRISAT and IITA) in the WASAT Their principal research activity has been the development of new food crop varieties especially cereals Yet few cereal varieties have been successful enough to displace local cultivars Matlon (1985) estimated that the new cereal varieties presently occupy less than 5 of the WASAT crop area In our view new varieties unaccompanied by other inputs belong in this group of marginal changes which have had little impact Why Much of the WASAT is characterized by inadequate and irregular rainfall and low fertility soils These are difficult agricultural conditions for one-inpit changes Therefore it appears that WASAT farmers will neei to itilize higher levels oflyurchased inputs and to take more risks in order t) increase their incomes
Presently the level of purchased input utilization in the WASAT especially chemical inputs is extremely low The eight Sahelian countries have the lowest chemical fertilizer consumption in the world at less than 3 kgha on crops Animal traction is still in the introductory stage at less than 15 of the farmers in the WASAr (Matlon 1985) Moreover only a smail portion of the cereals are marketed (less than 10 in FSU sample villages on the Central Plateau in Burkina Faso) Only 3 of the cropland in the eight Sahelian countries is irrigated (Matlon 1983) With these low levels of input use and infrastructure it does not appear to be approshypriate to develop new technologies for high levels of input use However it is important to make improvements in the marketing systems so that modshyerate input levels can be utilized and there will be increased marketing of the cereals
Marginal changes such as the minimal input utilization changes disshycussed previously are not expected to be sufficient to interest farmers or to lead to sustained yield increases Moderate input levels including chemical inputs are expected to be necessary to obtain significant yield increases which fit economically into the farmers production systems (see Chapter V for specific details on chemical fertilizer) Hence as new technologies are being developed and implemented over time input and proshyduct marketing institutions must also evolve The development of these markets may require governmental support and further research The effishyciency of the para-statal product marketing agencies and the role of prishyvate and public institutions in input markets are two primary issues of concern in the present agricultural development literature on Sub-Saharan Africa
What role should FSR projects have in influencing agricultural policy and other macro issues Historically there has been an urban bias in agricultural policies in most WASAT countries To keep food prices low for urban consumers WASAT governments have frequently intervened via parashystatal marketing organizations To compensate farmers for the low product prices these same governments often have provided input subsidies to farmshyers Presently the World Bank and US AID hTje been pressuring WASAT governments to eliminate these input subsidies At least in the short run this will reduce the profitability of agriculture discourage investshyment in agriculture and delay technology adoption Part of the evaluation
23
of new technologies by the FSR program should include some sensitivity analysis to estimate the farm-level effects of various agricultural polishycies including the elimination of input subsidies
In the recent summarv of FSR for the World Bank (Simmonds 1984) a distinction was drawn betweei modifications to present farming systems and entirely new systems of production Improved agronomy with moderate levels of inputs and ultimately introducing new varieties for these improved systems would be in the first category (and see Chapter V for concrete examples) However many of the poorer more marginal environments in the WASAT ultimately will need to gradually withdraw from crop production and move into grazing systems or forestry Crop farming in the WASAT migrated further north after the high rainfall period of the fifties As yield increases are attained in those regions of rainfed aiculture with more potential and in the river valleys and irrigated areas some present crop areas can be returned to more extensive agricultural systems Farming systems research will need to make some decisions about the regions with the most agricultural potential For those truly marginal regions more comprehensive systems changes may be necessary than are customarily evaluated in farming systems research
r-tional policy factors and national agricultural development planshyning cannot be ignored in FSR Many of these macro factors and evolving changes need to be explicitly incorporated into the analysis of which technologies and regions are appropriate for evaluation Nevertheless it is recommended that modeling concentrate on the farm level Without much better micro data and analysis than is presently available in most developshying countries extending farm models to sector analysis seems to be only a training device for economists rather than a useful exercise to enlighten agricultural development planners As the micro-modeling foundation is improved in the next five to ten years the agricultural sector models will be able to give a more useful input into agricultural policy formulation in the WASAT countries
Which agencies should undertake the on-farm testing
FSR presently takes five to ten percent of the budgets of several IARCs (Simmonds 1984 pp 67 68) and the IARCs have generally taken a leadership role in field application of on-farm testing The long-run frequently stated objective of the IARCs is to turn this activity over to the national agricultural research systems (NARC) The rationale is that the on-farm trials give very location-specific results The IARCs can develop methodologies and demonstrate the utilization of new research activities to the NARCs but ultimately larger numbers of on-farm trials in many regions will need to be undertaken in developing countries to evaluate the diverse technologies being produced in the IARCs and NARCs Not only does the scale of this testing make it infeasible for the IARCs to undertake all of it themselves but also much of the testing will be outside the commodity mandates of the individual IARCs
24
The institutional placement of on-farm testing depends upon the relative importance of the two clienteles for the products of the research at a given stage of technology development These two potential clienteles are the extension seryjce and the agricultural researchers On-farm trials which are successful give important information to the extension service and to those public officials involved with agricultural policy On-farm trials which are not successful give feedback on farm-level problems with the technologies to researchers at the experiment stations in both the national and international centers
If the primary emphasis of the on-farm trials needs to be on feedshyback then there are two problems with the present location of most farming systems research in the IARCs First several of the centers put the principal emphasis of their on-farm trials on providing information for the NARCs and the extension services (Simmonds 1985 pp 92-97) Presently there is less concern with feedback from the on-farm trials to IARC reshysearchers on the relevance and problems of the technologies they are developing Organizationally it appears to be very difficult for a divishysion of one institution to ierve for very long as an effective critic of its own activities
Secondly most of the IARCs Pre crop-breeding institutions including CIMMYT IRRI CIAT ICRISAT ICARDA and IITA Two of these centers CIMMYT and IRRI have been very successful in producing new varieties for those environments with adequate assured water availability and moderate to high levels of input utilization However in most of the harsher environments including the WASAT where these conditions are not met improvements in agronomy to attain moderate purchased input levels may need to precede the introduction of new varieties On-farm testing undertaken or financed by the IARCs tends to concentrate on the varietal effect since that is their mandate In these harsher environments institutions other than the IARCs (or even the NARCs which receive IARC assistance of new germ plasm) may need to do the on-farm testing
This on-farm testing in harsher climatic regions such as the WASAT would concentrate first on identifying agronomic improvements ie the combination of measures to improve water retention and soil fertility At a later stage the IARCs and NARCs could develop new varieties for these improved (but not high input) production systems The main points here are that at least in the WASAT stage of agricultural development the princishypal focus of on-farm testing will need to be on feedback to the research station and the principal focus of research on agronomic improvements
On-farm testing can be considered either as the last stage of the agricultural research process befcre passing the innovation on to the Extension Service or the first stage of the Extension process before demonstration trials and active diffusion measures Clearly there needs to be interaction between the NARC and the Extension Service consisting of the regular exchange of information and even planning of the on-farm trials If there is sufficient exchange of information and collaboration
25
in on-farm trial design the institutional location of these trialswill be less important
In summary on-farm trials will need to be undertaken by most agencies involved in agricultural experimentation in the WASAT Communication barriErs are sufficiently large between scientists and farmers that this type of intermediate activity is expected to be necessary for several decades since the IARCs NARCs and other agencies apparently need this source of feedback on the performance of their technologies Since we have been stressing the importance of feedback all through this chapter we argue that the on-farm trials should be located in the research rather than the extension entity so that feedback results are more readily acceptable at the experiment station
As on-farm trials move into the NARCs and are financed by their own internal financial resources lower ccst methods for conducting on-farm trials must be sought These trials tend to be very intensive in their use of highly qualified scientific manpower for planning and evaluation Their execution requires good logistic support and training for a large number of field workers It would appear that in the WASAT external financing and external scientific manpower will be necessary for some time to continue high levels of on-farm testing
Conclusions
Defining farmers constraints to increasing agricultural production is a complicated task best illustrated by example In the conclusions to this report (Chapter VI) we return to this problem to illustrate the conshytribution of the Purdue farming systems project to constraint identification in the WASAT Meanwhile the survey process can be divided into an initial or baseline study which describes the farmers production and household systems and supplementary or diagnostic surveys which invesshytigate particular research areas as they arise For the baseline study the in-depth village-household production and consumption analyses freshyquently undertaken by anthropologists and sociologists seem especially relevant to an understanding of the farming systems in the areas specifishycally targeted for further research activity during the on-farm stage of FSR Supplementary diagnostic 3urveys can then be undertaken in response to specific objectives of th farm-level work especially the on-farm testing of new technclogies These will often be within the disciplinary area of agricultural economists In the modeling stage of the evaluation process there will frequently be a need for supplementary farm business or household information
One primary recommendation here is that the on-farm testing phase of the FSR begin in the first production season Agricultural scientists will generally have a series of recommendations of component parts for farm testing Putting these individual factors together into technology packages and testing them under farmers conditions will help to further develop their understanding of farmers objectives and systems The
26
agricultural scientists will generally have much more interest in field experiments than in the diagnostic surveys In this initial stage of onshyfarm testing the principal direction of information flow will be feedback to the researchers as the packages are expected to have either technical or economic prulblems impeding their acceptance by farmers
Multi-disciplinary collaboration especially between the agricultural scientists and economists is essential for the on-farm testing Agriculshytural scientists know well the mechanics of the testing process Econoshymists understand the farmers objectives Both need to collaborate to understand the interactions and complexities of farmers systems of proshyduction There should be collaboration in research design to avoid replishycating experiment station trials and to obtain the necessary data for economic analysis
On the farm the treatments are generally different systems of production rather than individual factors The analysis proceeds from a statistical analysis of the significance of yield differences to economic concerns with profitability and the fit into the farmers systems of proshyduction The comparison between treatments analyzes the potential benefits to the farmers from new technology adoption since the control is a proxy for the farmers system of production The simplest economic analysis is the evaluation of profitability using partial budgets However this type of analysis is not as simple as it appears because of price variation and the difficulty of attiibutinrg prices to some production factors Generally an attempt is made to overcome these budgeting problems with sensitivity analysis
The final step in the evaluation is to consider the potential fit of the activity irto the farmers systems of production with mathematical proshygramming This whole f=crm analysis simulates the farmers decision-making process by including information on all present and potential activities using the data on on-farm and off-farm resource availabilities New sysshytems of production that pass through all three stages of this evaluation are expected to be adopted by farmers There is some adoption evidence from both Colombia and Burkina Faso supporting the above assertion
In the harsh envirarunent of the WASAT given the very low utilization of purchased inputs at present marginal agronomic changes such as density timing or even varietal change are expected to have little or even negashytive impact Larger systems changes involving technologies which simultaneously augment water conservation and soil fertility are hypothesized as necessary in order to raise yields sufficiently so that these new systems not only yield more than farmers practices on their own fields but also are profitable and fit into farmers production systems
National economic and agricultural policies can have a large impact on technology evaluation and even the planning of FSR Policymakers need to be concerned with creating an environment in which farmers can make money from adopting new technologies In the short run in the WASAT the
27
elimination of input subsidies especially if ceilings are retained for product prices will make it more difficult for farmers to profit from new technology adoption By evaluating the impact of different agricultural and economic policies on the farm-level profitability and potential adopshytion of new technologies the FSR program may be able to help influence governmental policy formation
Another impact of national policy is on agricultural development planning Frequently FSR programs are designed for marginal agricultural areas Alternatives to developing technologies for these regions may be public health investments in river valleys and yield-improving strategies in the dryland regions with better agricultural resources If yields can be sufficiently improved for the higher resource regions some shifting into livestock or even forestry may be appropriate land-use decision for the more marginal agricultural areas For these types of land-use changes government would need to finance the human resettlement costs Change in agricultural activities of this magnitude are not generally included in FSR Hence Simmonds (1984 p 121) developed a new term for it New Farming Systems Develonment (NFSD)
In the WASAT a prerequisite to new variety development appears to be the simultaneous utilization of moderate input levels to improve water retention and soil fertility Once these agronomic improvements are in place new variety introduction is expected to have more potential for sucshycess than at the present time Some of the on-farm trials in the WASAT may need to be underjgken by agencies whose principal activity is not new variety development
The on-farm testing can be either the final step in the research proshycess of the NARC IARC or other research institution or the fi t step in the Extension Service before demonstration trials or other disL mination activities The institutional location should depend upon whether the prishymary product is feedback on technology improvement to experiment station researchers or feedforward of technologies to be disseminated by the Extension Service Since the process of feedback to researchers is conshysidered to be the most important objective of on-farm testing in the early stages of agricultural technology development in the WASAT our institushytional preference for the location of these trials is with the national agricultural research centers (NARCs) rather than the national extension service The scientists in the on-farm trials will know how to convince the scientists on the experiment station of the validity of their results Some of them may even fulfill algual role working on both the experiment station and the on-farm trials As more technology is validated in the on-farm trials and can move on to the Extension Service the returns to investments in the institutional ties between the NARCs and the Extension Service will be increased
28
FOOTNOTES
This type of infrmation flow is customarily referred to as feedback
Farming Systems and other research programs also attempt to provideinformation on new technologies to farmers and extension agents Anyagricultural research program ult imately needs to have an impact on the well-being of farmers in order to survive Since the economic imporshytance of this directional flow of information to farmers is obvious we consider it to be more importlant to stress here the importance of the feedback to researchers so that they are more effective in doing their job ie producing new technologies
2 Dillon (1976 pp 6-7) contrasts philosophic differences of scientific
investigation into two approaches Reduc t ionism implied reducingphenomena to their more basic (and hopefully independent) parts analyzshying these parts as independent entities to explain their behavior and then aggregating these explanations as an explanation of the phenomenon under study Reductionism abetted and fostered the proliferation of specialized deafness and tunnel vision in form of independentthe scienshytific disciplines
Since the fifties reductionism has been increasingly seen as an inadequate basis for science to either understand or to manipulate and control its environment An alternative approach is the systems or holistic approach This is a multi-disciplinary approach in which explanation then proceeds in terms of the role or function of the part in the Larger system(s)
Clearly heshe will be exposed to all the other types of constraints but disciplinary blinders often exist especially for those involved in their own research programs
4 A recent international agricultural research center meeting for the planniig of on-farm trials in Africa concluded that the initial descripshytion and diagnostic activity of the FSR should be rapidly implemented so that a crop season for experimentation is not lost (unpublished summaryof meeting notes ILRAD Oct 1984) Diagnosticsurvey activities and farm-level experimentation can continue simultaneously In fact the farm-level experimentation will require additional diagnosticsurvey activities to evaluate the Economic potential of the new technology
The diagnostic surveys of economists have not been nearly as useful for a comprehensive understanding of the farming and household systems as those of the anthropologists Howev-r the utility of the economist on multi-disciplinary teams to undertake and evaluate on-farm trials has been repeatedly demonstrated and is now widely if not universally acshycepted (Simmonds 1984 pp 24 71-75 125) The other social scienshytists have not yet demonstrated their capacity to work on these types of teams They appear to be in the position of defining their role a position similar to that of the economists about a decade earlier
29
6 Generally soil fertility is higher on the experiment station and the
incidence of anddiseases insects is greater than on the surrounding farms due to the repeated intensive cultivation of the same crops Howshyever on the experiment station the high levels of non-treatment inputs such as agricultural chemicals can reduce the levels of insects disshyeases and weeds to levels even lower than on the farmers fields For farmers these levels of chemical control are often not profitable
Occasionally the impact of one or two components will be estimated as with fertilization and tied ridges (a water-conservation technique) alone and in combination in the Burkina Faso FSU program
8 If the weeding is not done opportunely there can often be a yield
decline Moreover all farms in a given region will be performing these types of operations at approximately the same time Hence it will be very difficult for farmers to hire temporary labor away from their famshyily operations So the implicit value or productivity of the family labor becomes very high in these particular tasks at certain critical times
9 A more comprehensive agricultural policy analysis would include the macro effect of new technology introduction on prices as is done in agriculture sector models But because so many other structural changes are occurring at the same time this price effect is not considered to be very important at least in the initial stages of technology development
10 Those advocating these types of planting density date or other culshy
tural system change generally are expecting yield increases of only 10 to 20 This type of yield increase is very difficult for the farmer to see and could easily disappear as on-farm trials change from researcher to farmer management New agronomic system changes are expected to take time for farmers to master if a series of component part changes are implied andor timeliness of the relevant operations is also important Hence the yield differences of these minimal changes even if they truly exist will often disappear in the learning-by-doing effect
11 Once farmers are utilizing moderate purchased input levels it will be
very important to systematically evaluate the im-pact of these marginal changes especially new varieties and more intensive cropping systems
12 By removing all input subsidies and other price distortions or intervenshy
tions governments and international agencies can calculate the real resource cost of various alternative policies and ascertain their comshyparative advantage in international production This analysis assumes that the re are no differences between private and public benefits or between private and social costs Hence there are no externalities in the system
30
Removing these price and cost distortions will facilitate economic calculations and in the long run welfare gains are expected In the short run the elimination of input subsidies is expected to sharply slow down the agricultural developmenc process and to put upward presshysure on agricultural product prices and the demand for agricultural import substitutes Developed country exporters of agricultural proshyducts would be the principal beneficiaries of higher agricultural import levels in the developing countries
13 In the river valleys and irrigated regions human health constraints may be the principal factor limiting agricultural development River blindshyness has been a serious problem in many of the Burkina Faso river valshyleys An erradiation program has now at least temporarily eliminated this problem In the irrigation projects the widespread incidence of bilharzia substantially reduces labor productivity
14 By successful we mean passing the three evaluation criteria recommended
in Figure 5 Clearly agricultural scientists will also be interested in those technologies being passed on to the Extension Service for diffusion We are stressing here their interest in feedback in order to resolve those problems in their technologies which came to their attenshytion because of the results of the on-farm trials
15 We would expect that those agencies principally concerned with varietal
development would emphasize varietal testing in their on-farm trials The on-farm trials are important activities for institutions primarily concerned with breeding Nevertheless a third party such as a univershysity may be necessary in order to carry out the farm trials without preconceived notions which would emphasize certain varieties or other types of technology
16 The differences are so great between the experiment station and the
farm-level definitions of constraints and relevant research problems that one of the field agronomists from this project even proposed that all agricultural scientists working on the experiment stations in the WASAT should have some involvement with on-farm trials
CHAPTER IV
PRODUCTION CONSTRAINTS OF THE WASAT FARMING SYSTEMS
The WASAT is not as well endowed with a climate or soil resource base as most of the populated areas of the world This chapter elaborates on the major physical and resource endowment constraints of the WASAT and describes cropping patterns farmers goals and objectives and modern input use
Climate
The WASAT region is a transition zone betwien the northern desert and the humid tropics of the south There are three distinct seasons warm and dry from November to March hot and dry during March through May and hot and wet from May to October Harmattan conditions (hot dry dustshyladen winds) exist during the November to March period
Rainfall in the May to October agricultural season over the entire WASAT ranges from 200 mm in the north to 1300 mm in the south with potenshytial evapotranspiration ranging between 2200 mm in the north to 1600 mm in the south (Nicou and Charreau 1985) Since the mid-sixties annual rainshyfall has averaged 100 to 150 mm below the long-term average within each isohyet (Dancette 1977) Thus the isohyet levels delineating the climatic zones in Figure 1 would be at lower levels if more recent rainfall data were used
Rainfall is extremely variable over time and over space Nicholson (1982) states that in normal rainfall years 40 to 50 of individual weather stations experience below-normal rainfall Rainfall vaiiabiltty at individual stations ranges from 15 of the long-term average in the south to 50 in the north (Nicholson 1982) Also the number of below-normal years tend to exceed the number of wet years The long-term average rainshyfall is inflated by a few extremely wet years (Nicholson 1982) The area also has a long history of intermittent droughts and wet spells
Soil Fertility and Water Retention
Soils in the WASAT are predominantly sandy red alfisols low in organic matter and exchangeable cations with a soil texture high in sand (60-95) anO low in silt and clay content (Matlon 1985 Nicou and Charreau 1985) The soils tend to be deficient in phosphorous and nitroshygen Long fallow periods can restore soil fertility but phosphorous and nitrogen deficiency symptoms have been observed shortly after the land is put into cultivation (IFDC 1985) The phosphorous sorption capacity of WASAT soils vary widely but is generally low decreasing the agronomiceffectiveness of phosphate fertilizers (IFDC 1985) Nitrogen can be quickly exhausted in these fragile poorly buffered soils (IFDC 1985) The soils contain only weak aggregates and in many regions the soil surface
32
dries after a rain and forms a crust which restrict water infiltration and aeration (Kowal and Kassam 1978) These soil properties combined with high intensity rainfall lead to water retention and erosion problems In the dry season the soils harden making pre-plant cultivation difficult and almost impossible by traditional methods until there is a major rain (Kowal and Kassam 1978)
The quality of the land in terms of fertility and organic matter conshytent varies greatly in tarmers fields Land quality and soil water retenshytion are highly correlated with topography and distance from the compound area around the living quarters The quality and water retention ability of the soil deteriorates as one moves farther up the toposequence and away from the compound area thus requiring different cropping and management strategies by the farmer (Stoop et al 1982)
Although more productive vertisols and hydromorphic soils are found along river valleys the presence of Onchoceriasis (river blindness) in many of the river valleys has made them uninhabitable in the past
Labor Availability
Labor shortages exist in the critical planting and weeding periods (FSUSAFGRAD 1983) Planting of millet and sorghum begins with the first significant rains in May or June This is followed by rice groundnut and maize planting in combination with the sorghum and millet first weeding activities Depending on the level and distribution of rainfall fields may require resowing transplanting andor thinning Usually a second and at times a third weeding will follow Most of the plantingfirst weeding period occurs over a six-week time period with the household supshyplying the labor
When farmers were asked why they did not hire more labor for first weeding their reply was Because there is no one to hire then everyone is busy with their own weeding (FSUSAFCRAD 1983) Households do not genershyally hire labor from other households because cash and food reserves at this time of year are at their lowest and not sufficient to pay laborers a wage rate (or its equiyalent in food) equal to the opportunity cost of working their own land Also few laborers are in the labor market at this time because households have control of their family labor and utilize it for their own production needs (Kowal amp Kassam 1978)
Cropping Patterns
Cereal production is the dominant agricultural activity in the WASAT (Kowal and Kassam 1978) Regional cropping patterns in the WASAT differ-shythe most notable difference being the increasing dominance of millet over sorghum maize and root crops as soil fertility and rainfall decrease from south to north About 80 of the cropped area in the WASAT is intershycropped--cerealcereal and cereallegume are the most common (Fussell and Serafini 1985 Sawadogo et al 1985) Cowpeas are usually intercropped
33
with millet or sorghum at low densities of 1000 to 8000 plants per hectare The main cash crops in the south include cotton groundnuts and bambara nuts Small amounts of rice are grown in the bottom lands and irrigated areas
At the farm level land quality the water retention ability of the soil and labor availability are the dominant factors in farmers cropping decisions (Lang et al 1983) The staple crops of maize sorghum and millet receive the highest priority of land and labor resources Drought tolerance of the crops are matched with soil fertility and toposequence Maize which is less tolerant to drought and low soil fertility than either sorghum or millet is planted near the villagle compound on the more-fertile compound field This field ranging in size from 1 to 2 ha is used as a dump for night soil animal manure stubble and other organic material Sorghum is planted on the lower areas where there is slightly more water accumulation and where the soils are more fertile than the poorer soils further up the toposequence (Stoop et al 1982) The more abundant but poorer land is planted to millet which has the most tolerance to drought and low soil fertility Farmers say that in the worst rainfall years some millet can always be harvested
Millet and sorghum can be found growing in the next higher soil fershytility gradient than is dictated by their drought tolerance ability but maize and sorghum are rarely grown on a lower soil fertility gradient Farmers say that white sorghum is preferred because it stores twice as long as millet however more sorghum is not sown because of limited good qualshyity land and because sorghum is more vulnerable to parasites such as striga Maize and sorghum planting is thus constrained by the availability of high quality land whereas the millet area is constrained by the labor supply in the plantingfirst weeding period
In the old settlement areas cereal yields are declining in response to lower soil fertility caused by the decrease in the fallow period and lower average rainfall over the last decade (Lang et al 1984) As the soil fertility declines sorghum is being replaced by millet which yields better on the poorer soils Farmers in the village of Nedogo say that much more sorghum was planted in the village when they were young than is planted now (Ames 1986)
Farmer Goals and Objectives
Norman (1982) states that the most important differences among farming systems come from the constraints peculiar to the region and not from difshyferences in farmer aspirations (which include higher incomes effort reducshytion and risk avoidance) Farmers in older settlement areas have conshystraints and endowments which differ from those of farmers in frontier villages Farmers in the older settlement areas of Burkina where access to land is limited and soil fertility low indicated uniformly that their only goal was subsistence (FSUSAFGRAD 1983) This means harvesting enough sorghum and millet in November to feed their families until the beginning
34
of the August maize harvest that provides food during the hungry period-shythe period between ending cereal stocks and the new harvest (FSUSAFGRAD 1983) When asked to specify other goals and objectives the first priorshyity was the payment of a head tax and if resources remained meetingurgent needs which were listed as medical Other priorities were to reward the family with clothes for their work during the cropping season and to greet their in-laws or arrange marriages (FSUSAFGTAD 1983)
On the frontier where access to fallow land is notl limited half of the farmers gave subsistence oriented responses that were similar to the responses given in the older settlement areas However half of the farmshyers responded that We were once concerned only with survival but now we also think of accumulating wealth When asked What is wealth they replied cattle (FSUSAFGRAD 1983)
The survey results indicated that although farmers in the WASAT in general are subsistence oriented the goals and objectives of farmers difshyfer given different constraints This is evidenced by the total subsisshytence orientation of the sample of farmers in the old settlement villages versus the orientation of those farmers in the frontier village who indishycated wealth accumulation as one of their main goals Higher soil fertilshyity and access to land at the frontier has permitted farmers to look beyond subsistence goals This appears to demonstrate that if through technologshyical introduction some of the constraints to increasing yield in the WASAT can be alleviated the aspirations of farmers will allow technology adopshytion to occur (at some level of profit effort and risk)
Modern Input Use
Except for tuie higher rainfall regions of the Sudano-Guinean region and some river valleys credit and modern inputs such as fertilizer pestishycides herbicides and improved varieties are not widely used in the WASAT Even in these regions of higher rainfall purchased input utilization is concentrated on the export crops cotton and groundnuts FAO fertilizer statistics indicate that NPK use in eight Sahelian countries averaged less than 3 kgha as compared to 73 kgha in Asia (Matlon 1985) Less than 15 of farmers use animal traction in the WASAT (Matlon and Spencer 1985) Animal traction is used for shallow land preparation plowing and shallow weeding but utilization rates are low and farmers seldom are equipped to do more than one mechanized operation (Jaeger 1985)
Neither input nor product marketing infrastructure nor a research and extension service similar to that developed for cash crops in the WASAT pre-independence era (pre-1960) was ever developed for food crops In the Colonial period food requirements were met by the subsistence-oriented agricultural system There was little export demand for food crops such as sorghum and millet (World Bank 1985) Since the late 1960s however rapid population growth and lower food crop yields due to lower rainfall levels and declining soil fertility have substantially increased food crop
35
demand to the point where food security is not assured in most regions of the WASAT Expanding cereal imports have accompanied this trend
Even with the population pressure and increased food demand since independence an input and product marketing infrastructure for food crops has not developed Poor fertility 3oils erratic rainfall distribution and low soil water retention have led to highly variable between-year yield responses to many land-substituting inputs For example the response of fertilizer is highly dependent upon the availability of sufficient water at several critical periods Thus fertilizer utilization can be very risky Similarly iroved varieties have not dcne well under traditional manageshyment conditions (Matlon 1985)
Labor-saving animal traction technology is not widely used in the WASAT in spite of potentially high ratc of return Present internal rates of return of 10 in old settlement areas (Nedogo) and 20 to 30 at the frontier (Diapangou) have been estimated but higher rates of return could be achieved with higher utilization rates principally through expansion of the number of mechanized agricultural operations (Jaeger 1985) Most animal traction farms observed in Burkina Faso mechanized either the land preparation or the cultivation operations but not both Problems of obtaining high utilization rates stein from small size farms inapproprishyate andor incomplete set of implements poor animal health and nucrition and poor management (Jaeger and Sanders 1985) Higher utilization rates and the full benefit of mechanization are not obtained by first-time animal traction users because learning curves can be as long as five years (Jaeger and Sanders 1985) Few animal traction extension programs exist which train farmers and draft animals and thus facilitate animal traction usage
In summary low soil fertility and low soil water retention low variable and unpredictable rainfall in combination with a high evapotransshypiration rate labor shortages in the critical planting and weeding periods and the limited access to land in old settlement areas are the major physical and resource endowment constraints to increased cereal yields in most of the WASAT (Matlon 1985 Nagy et al 1985 Lang et al 1984) The physical environment makes new technology adoption in the WASAT risky The national research institutions extension and input and product marketing infrastructures to support new technology adoption and dissemination are at a low level Thus farming systems on the frontier continue to be bush-fallow systems that rely on available land and family labor inputs with little utilization of purchased inputs Farming systems in the older settled area have been shifting to more millet production and yields have declined and stabilized at low levels
Despite the current situation in the WASAT recent research findings suggest that a Malthusian perspective can be iverted Several on-farm evaluated technologies have been shown to be both agronomically and economshyically feasible in increasing cereal production and others have promise for the future A review of the proposed technologies and farm management practices for the WASAT is the subject of the next chapter
36
Footnotes
Whole farm modeling results indicate opportunity costs of labor in the
last two weeks of the plantingfirst weeding period to be 365 and 181 FGFAhr respectively for manual tillage farmers which is in contrast to the wage rate of 30 to 50 FCFAhr (Roth et al 1986)
CHAPTER V
TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT TO INCREASE CEREAL PRODUCTION IN THE WASAT
Introduction
This chapter reviews the technologies and farm management techniques that have been proposed for alleviating the production constraints in the WASAT This review uses agronomic and socio-economic data and information frGn the Purdue FSU piogram supplemented by other research from the area The FSU program conducted research in three climatic zones with village research sites in the southern portion of the Sahelo-Sudanian zone in the Sudanian zone and in the northern portion of the Sudano-Guinean climatic zone (Figure 2) Thus FSU findings and the review of most of the techshynolog0ies and recommendations reflect this orientation
As each technology is discussed it is evaluated as to the feasibility of its utilization by farmers within the short run (0 to 5 years) the intermediate run (5 to 15 years) and the long run The criteria used in the evaluation attempt to follow the strategy used by farmers in their adoption process (see Figure 5 in Chapter III and Table 1 in this chapter)
Socio-economic research suggests that farmers do not necessarily adopt technologies as a package but rather adopt single technologies or clusters of technologies en route to total package adoption (Byerlee and Hesse de Polanco 1986 Mann 1978) This is in spite of the fact that the largest impact on yields comes about when various methods (technologies) are used in combinition or as a package The farmers strategy seems to be to adopt the technologies of the package sequentially based on availability technical viability in the field economic profitability and risk conshysiderations and the resource endowment fit of the technology (ie labor and land constraints) within the farming system The technologies within the package that best exhibit the above attributes will be selected first by the farmer Other technologies will be added only after the farmer has had positive experience with the already adopted technologies and when the above attribute requirements are again met Thus while farmers can be presented with a package of technologies there seems to be an agronomically and economically logical sequence by which technological adoption will occur Information on the likely adoption pattern sequence of proposed technologies is important for focusing research extension and government programs
In this chapter available agronomic technical and socio-economic research findings are used to review and sequence the proposed technologies and farm management practices for the WASAT For example research findings from on-station and on-farm research trials are used to assess technical viablity in the field Economic budget analysis and benefit-cost
38
Table 1 Present technical and economic feasibility and time frame of proposed technologies and farm management practices for the WASAT
Technologies Present Ayronomic and Technical Feasibility Present and Farm Mgmt On-Station On-Farm Economic
Practices Research Research Feasibility Comments
Available technologies for the short run
Tied ridging (manual) +++ Very labor intensive Diguettesdikes 3 Require materials (ie rocks) Complex fertilizer ++ Risk of losing cash outlayAnimal traction 3 ++ Preconditions (see text) Mechanical ridge tier +++ ++ Requires animal traction
Potential technologies for the intermediate run Rock phosphate + - Solubility amp application problems Improved varieties ++ + - Requires upgrading of physical
environment
Potential technologies for the long run Manurecomposting +++ ++ Small and finite supply Mulch +++ ++ Small and finite supply Plowinggreen manuring ++ ++ - Poor draft animal health
Herbicides ++ ++ - Further research requiredBiol nitrogen fixation + - Further research requir Crop associations - intensification ++ + - Requires upgrading of physical - alley cropping ++ + - environment and improved
varieties Labor and management
intensive
++ High degree of feasibility--research supports a very good agronomic response or is technically very
feasible ++ Feasible--good agronomic response or technically feasible + Limited feasibility--agronomic results often inconsistent - Not feasible--little evidence to support a good agronomic response or technical feasibility
HaHighly profitable at present
= Profitable at present = Not always profitable at pres(ent
- NHot economically feasible at present
3 Not researched at the on-station level
4 Can be feasible for sole cropping but problems with mixture of broad and slender leaf plants in crop associations
39
ratios are used to determine economic profitability Research irial results and the incidence of cash outlay loss are used to assess risk Whole farm modeling and labor data analysis is used to indicate the fit of the technolshyogy within the farming systems Farmers views and comments are also incorporated
Once the technologies and farm management practices are reviewed and sequenced for either the short intermediate or long run the discussion in this chapter turns to identifying available technologies--first for the present cereal-based farming systems and second for a future more intenshysified farming system The technologies available for use in the present farming systems are then further sequenced on a recommendation domain basis
Proposed Technologies for the WASAT
The research that has been carried out in the WASAT aimed at overcomshying climatological and physical constraints and labor endowment shortages is discussed under the hicadings 1) soil fertilitywater retention techshynologies 2) labor-saving technologies 3) improved varietal research and 4) crop associations Table 1 presents a summary of the technical and ecoshynomic feasibility evaluation and a time frame for the availability of the proposed technologies and farm management practices
1) Soil FertilityWater Retention Technologies
Tied Ridges Tied ridging technology was introduced in the 1950s in West Africa (Dagg and Macartney 1968) On-station and on-farm research has shown that tied ridges significantly increase yields (Nicou and Charreau 1985 Dugue 1985 Rodriguez 1982 Ohm et al 1985a and 1985b) (see Photograph 5 page 41) FSU on farm researcher-managed (TR constructed both at and one month after planting) and farmer-managed trials (TR conshystructed 4-6 weeks after planting) have shown significant yield increases and economic returns to the additional labor required for TR on maize sorghum (Table 2 column 2) and millet (FSU 1983 Annual Report 1983 Lang et al 1984 and Ohm et al 1985a and 1985b) Manual tying of ridges is very labor intensive The manual tying of ridges constructed with animal traction requires at least 40 man hoursha (with very efficient laborers) and on average 75 man hoursha whereas constructing TR completely by hand requires at least 100 hoursha (Ohm et al 1985b) (see Photograph 6 page 41)
PJshy
-no pre-plant soil itillage no fertilization Soil scarification with animal traction~Woman planting millet by traditional manual method
-
Left fertilization right no fertilization foreground droughty area in field shy a typical view in the Central Manual construction of tiec oges in researcher-managed trial - mulch applied to somePlateau plots
D II
A
FSU researcher managed trials near Poedogo Water entrapment in depressions resulting from tied ridgesa No fertilization construction of tied ridges at plantingb No fertilization construction of tied ridges one month after plantingc No fertilization without tied ridges d Fertilization and tied ridges
Ad T7 Z
Farmer-managed plots - Left traditional method no fertilization and no tied ridging right fertilization Farmer-managed trials - Left foreground mulch applied no fertilization nor construciion of tied ridgesand tied ridging Right foreground fertilization and contruction of tied ridges one month after planting Background farmshyers traditionally managed field
43
Construction of tied ridges with mechanical ridge tier FSU researcher managed trial Background maize intershycropped with cowpeas fertilized with construction of tiedridges at planting Foreground maize intercropped with cowshypeas no fertilization nor construction of tied ridges
43 - a
Table 2 Economic analysis of farmer-managed trials of sorghum with fertilizer and tied ridges Nedogo and Diapangou 1983 and 1984
1 Treatments
C TR F TRF Nedogo 1984 Manual Traction
Grain Yield kgha 2 157 416 431 652
Yield Gain Above Control kgha - 259 274 495
Gain in Net Revenue FCFAha 3 - 23828 13275 33607
Returnhr of Additional Labor FCFA4 238 140 172- Farmers Whio Would Have Lost Cash - 0 27 9
1aedogo 1983 Manual Traction Grain Yield kgha 430 484 547 851 Yield Gain Above Control kgha - 54 117 421 Gain in Net Revenue FCFAha - 3510 -2285 17475 Returnhr of Additional Labor FCFA - 35 - 90 Farmers Who Would Have Lost Cash - 0 66 0
Diapangou 1984 Donkey Traction Grain Yield kgha 498 688 849 1133 Yield Gain Above Control kgha - 190 351 635 Gain in Net Revenue FCFAha - 17480 20359 46487 Returnhr of Additional Labor FCFA - 233 214 273 Farmers Who Would Have Lost Cash shy 0 21 0
Diapangou 1983 Donkey Traction Grain Yield kgha 481 522 837 871 Yield Gain Above Control kgha - 71 356 390 Gain in Net Revenue FCFAha - 6532 20819 23947Returnhr of Additional Labor FCFA - 87 219 141 Farmers Who Would Have Lost Cash - 0 16 12
Source Ohm et al 19851) and Lang et al 1984 Similar results were obtained at three other sites in Burkina
1 C = Control (no tied ridges or fertilizer) TR = tied ridges constructed at second weeding F = fertilizer 100 kgha 14-23-15 applied in band 10-15 cm from row at first weeding plus 50 gla urea applied in pockets 10-15 cm from seed pockets at second weeding
2 The standard error and CV (in parentheses) starting with Nedogo 1984 and conshy
tinUing through to Diapangon 1983 are 75 (43) 121 (29) 46 (18) and 43 (22) respectively Net Revenue = yield gaiii x grain price (65 and 92 FCFAkg in 1983 and 1984) minus fertilizer cost (62 and 78 CFAkg for 14-23-15 and 60 and 66 FCFAkg for urea in 1983 and 1984--fertili C prices are subsidized 40 to 50) Includes interest rate charge for six months at rate of 15 1 US dollar = 381 FCFA in 1983 and 436 FCFA in 1984 Net Revenue + additional labor of tied ridging and fertilizer application Manual and donkey traction require 100 and 75 hours of additional laborha for tied ridging respectively Fertilizer application requires 95 additional hoursha
44
Tied ridge construction has the advantage that no cash outlay is reshyquired if family labor is utilized However a survey of technology adoption by farmers in FSU villages indicated that the number of farmers constructing tied ridges and the hectarage of tied ridge construction outshyside the trial plots were small--an average of 032 hectaresfarmer with the largest being 10 hectare (Ohm et a] 1985b) When questioned farmers indicated that thev would like to construct more TR but they did not have sufficient family Iabo I ir ing from an outside labor pool is limited at the time tied ridges mu be coumstructed because the active labor force of all households is fully occupied with work in their own fields Linear programming representative farm models (Table 3 column 2) also indicate that labor availab i i ty const rainos prevent the manual tying of animal traction constructed ridges from beilng ut ilized on the entire farm
Another limitation is that tied ridging does not work well on sandy soils because the ties tend to break down in heavy rain Nevertheless aim estimated 40 of the presently cultivated land in Burkina and 15 in Mali appears to be suitable for tied ridging This represents 12 million hecshytares (Burns 1985) Tied ridges have been shown to be both agronomically and economicaly feasih Ic as a technology applicable at the present time to increase cereal product ion in the WASAT However the labor constraint requires a search for labor- saving technoloies
I)iguettesdikes There are various water conservationerosion methods in addition to tied ridges that are or could be used in the WASAT The construction of diguettes although not as effective in retaining water as tied ridges is a water conservation method that has been investigated Diguettes are barriers 10 to 15 cm high mainly made of rocks and placed on field contour lines 10 to 50 meters apart The barriers are permeable ard slow rainfall runoff to allow for increased infiltration They have imshyproved water retention and signiicantly increased yields in the norther[ (Yatenga) region of Burkina (Wright 1985) This technology has the advarshytage that it can be constructed in off peak labor periods with family labor and is not as labor intensive as tied ridging However rocks (the prinshycipal material) or other material in some regions are not available to conshystruct the diguettes Economic analysis indicates that the returns in the first year alone are greater than the labor bill (at the going wage rate) of constructing the diguettes In Burkina Faso local government agencies have constructed large dikes and barriers to control water flow at the village level Although diguettes and other forms of water retention and control require further research thme large dikes and diguettes are technologies that could be used at present
Complex Themical Fertilizers Under on-station and on-farm conditions significant yield increases for maize sorghum and millet have been obtained using complex mineral fertilizers (Pieri 1985 Ohm et al 1985b FSU Annual Reports) Yield response to fertilizer is however highly variable between sites and years (Spencer 1985) Nevertheless some researchers sugsest that continuous cropping using chemical fertilizers is potentially possible in the WASAT (see Pier 1985 p 77 for a literature review
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
45
Table 3 Whole farm modeling analysis of tied ridging with donkey tracshytion Central Plateau Burkina Faso
Tied-Ridging Technology Traditional Tied with Machine Management Tied by Two One
Variable (donkey) Hand Passes Pass -------------------- hectares---------------------
Total Area Cultivated 55 56 56 55 Maize
Traditional 20 - - -With Tied Ridges 20 20 20
Red Sorghum Traditional 60 - - -With Tied Ridges 60 60 60
White Sorghum Traditional 80 51 With Tied Ridges 29 80 80
Millet Traditional 318 315 315 184 With Tied Ridges - 33 164
Peanuts 76 85 53 43
Total Cereals Production ---------------------- kgs------------------------Per Househol 2103 2436 2651 2737 Per Resident 150 174 189 196
Net Farm Income 3 000s FCFA-------------------Per Household 2153 2462 2535 2622 Per Worker 308 352 362 375
1 Labor times of 75 man hoursha for tying of the ridges by hand 20 man
hoursha to machine tie with two passes and 2 aan hours to machine tie with one pass Yield estimates in kgsha for traditional practices and the technical intervention of tied ridging are as follows maize (1090 to 1730) red sorghum (672 to 940) white sorghum (472 to 660) and milshylet (320 to 415) 1985 fertilizer and grain prices were used
2 Based on 14 residentshousehold Annualized cost of 4400 FCFA for tied-ridging machine subtracted in colshyumns 3 and 4 Based on 7 active workershousehold
46
and references) Decreases in yield and fertilizer efficiency however have been observed after two to five years of continuous cropping where organic matter has not been incorporated into the soil (Pieri 1985)
In Burkina Faso on-farm researcher-managed trials indicate that the response of maize yields to tertilizer on the relatively high fertilitycompound soils was not economically profitable (1982 FSU Annual Report 1983) On-farm farmer-managed trials indicated that fertilizer can be profitable when using fertilizer alone on sorghum (Table 2 column 3) There is however considerable risk for the farmer of losing the cash outshylay when fertilizer is used alone as demonstrated by the percentage of farmers who would have lost cash in Table 2 column 3 Both yield and profitability substantially inicrease however when tied ridges and fertilshyizer are used in combination as indicated in Table 2 column 4 Also as shown in column 4 the risk of losing the cash outlay from the purchase of fertilize substantially decreases when fertilizer and TR are used in comshybination Fertilizer in combination with TR for millet on millet land has also been shown to be profitable with only a modera e risk of farmers losshying the fertilizer cash outlay (Ohm et al 1985a)
A survey of four FSU villages in Burkina indicated a range of fertilshyizer use )n cereals from zero farmers in the sample of the northern village of Bangasse to 33 of the farmers in the southern village sample from Poedogo which has better land and higher rainfall In the more northern region fertilizer use is riskier due to lower and more erratic rainfall Average hectarage fertilized in the villages that used fertil zer ranged from 034 ha at Nedogo to 3 ha at Poedogo (Ohm et al 1985b) Although the use rate per hectare was not established field staff indicated it was substantially lower than the 100 kga of 14-23-15 fertilizer applied to most of the FSU trials in the villages
The evidence to date on fertilizer use in the WASAT suggests that comshyplex fertilizers are a technolegy that can be used at present but yields are highly variable and the incidence of fertilizer cash outlay loss by farmers is high unless combined with a water retention technique such as TR The risk of losing cash decreases in the higher soil fertility and higher rainfall areas Empirical evidence also suggests that fertilizer use or water retention techniques such as TR when used alone can be economshyically feasible but that when used together the profitability substanshytially increases Moreover the number of farmers losing cash decreases subFstantially as compared with the fertilizer only strategy
Indigenous Rock Phosphate The benefits of using indig ous rock phosphate deposits in the WASAT are potentially appealling in terms of logistcs transportation cost advantages and foreign exchange savings Workable deposits occur in Senegal Mali Niger Togo Benin Nigeria and Burkina Faso On-station and on-farm trials have however found the rock phosphate to have solubility problems (IFDC 1985 Pieri 1985) The comshybination of the low P release in a water-soluble form that is readily available for use by plants aid the low I-sorption capacity of the WASAT soils have resulted in poor agronomic performance from rock phosphate applications There is little or no potential for direct application of WASAT rock phosphate with the possible exception of the Mali (Tilemsi) and Niger (Tahoual) deposits (IFDC 1985)
47
Two methods are used to increase the agronomic effectiveness of rock phosphate One method is to highly granulate the rock and the other method is acidulation Even when highly granulated the agronomic effrectiveness is low and several years of consecutive applications are required before significant yield increases are observed (IFDC 1985 FSU Annual Reports) After several years of application benefit-cnst ratios were still lower than other sources of phosphorous (IFDC 1985)
Four years of FSU on-farm farmer-managed trials in Burkina Faso using highly granulated Burkina rock phosphate (100 kgha rock phosphate with 50 kgha urea applied each year on the same plots) also indicated low benefitshycost ratios Benefit-cost ratios of less than one with a 50 subsidized rock phosphate price were obtained (Unpublished FSU data) In the same experiment benefit-cost ratios of 13 were obtained from a rock phosphate tied ridging treatment but the benefit-cost ratio decreased to 069 when unsubsidized prices were used FSU cooperator farmers did not like using the rock phosphate due to its poor agronomic performance and application problems due to its highly granulated form
IFDC has developed two processes for the partial acidulation of rock phosphate Acidulation with sulfuric or phosphoric acid converts the calshycium phosphate into a more soluble form Research on the agronomic effecshytiveness of partially acidulated rock phosphate in the WASAT has given conshyflicting results (Batiano et al 1985) Inconsistent results were obtained by FSU with 50 acidulated Burkina rock phosphate in a one year on-farm researcher-managed trial with sorghum and millet (Ohm et al 1985a) The partially acidulated rock phosphate is also highly granulated giving rise to farmer application problems
Few economic studies of acidulated rock phosphate are available for the WASAT When compared with single superphosphate the relative economic performance of acidulated rock phosphate on millet in Niger is generally lower but is not consistent across sites or years (IFDC 1985)
To be agronomically and economically feasible the solubility problems of rock phosphate will have to be overcome The present effectiveness of acidulation requires further on-farm testing Once rock phosphate became agronomically and economically feasible fertilizer plants and distribution networks would require several years to develop A source of sulfuric or phosphoric acid at economically feasible prices is also required (Pieri 1985) Thus rock phosphate appears to be a technology most appropriate in the intermediate run after the technical problems of solubility and applishycation are resolved economically at the farm level
Animal Manure and Compost Manure and compost are already being used effectively on fields near the compound although application and composting techniques could be more efficient (Pieri 1985 Table 11) The principal constraint to the increased use of manuring and composting is their finite supply Few organic waste materials are left once the household and animal feed requirements are met Manure availability will increase only when animals are penned to make collection possible However cattle are grazed on fallow land away from the living quarters and the labor involved in conshyfined rearing of animals is too great Cattle are also entrusted to herdshyers because of feed shortages close to the village As fallow land
48
declines in the old settlement areas it will be increasingly difficult to support cattle near the village and in the area in general
While animal manure and composting are agronomically and economically feasible for use around the compound area at present they do not representfarm management practices that will substantially increase cereal producshytion in the WASAT in the short and intermediate run because of their finite supply Their potential will only be realized in the long run when the farming system evolves from the dominant cereal-based system to a more intensive cereal-foragecash crop system that is able to support more liveshystock near the village
Mulch Crop residue mulch can reduce rainfall runoff and increase water infiltration but sorghum amid millet stalks in raw or compost form mayadd little to soil fertility (Pieri 1985 p 91) As with manure the principal limiting factor of mulch is its finite supply--especially in the northern half of the WASAT The demand for its uses as animal feed fuel and construction materia] leaves most fields bare by planting time and even when it is not all used the prevalent custom is to burn it Moreover crop residues (3 to 5 Tha) are not sufficient by themselvEs to increase soil fertility and writer retention capacity appreciably In addition applications of mulch (10 Tha) can give rise to nitrogen deficiency which can only be overcome by composting or the addition of nitrogen (Pieri 1985)
Plowinggreen manuring Significant yield increases from on-station and n-farm research have been observed from deep ploughing and tillagepractices which change the structure of the soil allowing better root establishment and improved water infiltration and storage (Nicou and Charreau 1985 I)ugue 1985) Most tillage in the WASAT is done by shalshylow manual cultivation (85 of farmers) or by shallow animal traction cultivation Little pre-plant ploughing or tillage is done because of the need to plant soon after a rain (within 2 to 3 days) The soil is genershyally too hard and the animals too weak at this time of year for effective ploughing to take place before a major rain
Green manuring can also increase the fertility of the soil and add to its water retention capacity (Pieri 1985) However this practice also requires deep ploughing to incorporate the plants into the soil To be effective pre-plant and deep ploughing and green manure incorporation all require substantial draft power which can only be given by healthy well fed double ox teams This type of draft power will be available only in the long run when the farming systems can support high level-maintenance of the draft animals
2) Labor Saving Technologies
Animal Traction An estimated fifteen percent of farms in the WASAT use animal traction--mainly for transport shallow weeding or shallow land-preparation plowing (Matlon 1985) (see Photograph 2 page 40) Farmshyers in general use only one mechanized operation rather than using animal traction for all the agricultural activities of soil preparation plantingand weeding (Jaeger 1985) To date animal traction usage in the WASAT can be characterized as iand using (extensive) Some studies have reported
49
significant farm area expansion from animal traction usage Animal tracshytion can perform weeding 6 to 7 times faster than manual weeding (Jaeger and Sanders 1985) Increased yield effects have been reported in the literature (mainly from ploughing) but the yield effects are generally small (Binswanger 1978)
In spite of low animal traction adoption in the WASAT at present it is a technology that is feasible for use in the short run Animal traction can be made more economically attractive to farmers Present internal rates of return can be doubled and tripled by higher utilization rates (Jaeger 1985) Higher utilization rates can be achieved by increasing the number of mechanized operations In the past many animal traction proshygrams have failed in the WASAT because utilization rates were not suffishyciently high Returns to first time users of animal traction in the first years of operation are generally low because learning curves can be as long as five years and is a deterrent to first time users (Jaeger and Sanders 1985) First time users can obtain the full benefit of nechanizatior quicker through farmer and animal extension training and an improved market for trained draft animals
Mechanical Ridge Tier To respond to the labor constraint in conshystructing tied ridges the IITASAFGRAD Agronomy Program designed a protoshytype mechanical ridge tier (MRT) (Figure 6) for animal traction (Wright and Rodriguez 1985) (see Photographs 7 and 9 pages 41 42) With FSU and IITA SAFGRAD collaboration ihe MRT was field tested as part of Burkinas 1985 national farming systems program (Nagy et al 1986a) Yield levels compare favorably between ridges constructed with animal traction and tied manually and those ridges made with the MRT When the two pass method is used (first ridging and then using the MRT) the MRT substantially reduces the labor requirements from an average 75 man hoursha for the manual tyingof animal traction ridges to 20 man hoursha The MRT operation requires only 2 to 3 additional hours above ridging alone when ridging and tying with the MRT are done simultaneously (one pass) Donkeys must be strong and healthy for the one pass method Oxen which are mainly available on the frontier clearly have an advantage and can easily do both operations simultaneously
Linear programming representative farm models indicate that while available labor constrains the tying of ridges manually to 11 ha (Table 3 column 2) the MRT can tie 32 ha when using the one-pass method (Table 3 column 4) and is highly profitable The profitability is further increased with the addition of fertilizer (Table 4) although hectarage under tied ridges decreases to 09 for manual tying and to 30 with the MRT because labor is required for fertilizer application Budget analysis also indishycates the profitability of the MRT urder vaiious prices and goodbad year weather scenarios (Nagy et al 1986a)
50
10
9
3 Latch lever 8 30 cm ridger that allows soil to flow over the top
4 Rubber band (inner tube strip) 9 Handles of houe Manga (FAQ donkey weecer) 5 Latch adjuster (for correct angle and to 10 Bicycle cable to brake lever
compensate for wear in bearings shovels and latch)
Figure 6 The ITASAFGRAD mechanical ridge tier (donkey version)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
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Table 4 Whole farm modeling analysis of a tied ridging-fertilization technology combination with donkey traction Central Plateau Burkina Faso
Tied-Ridging Technology Traditional Tied with Machine Management Tied by Two One
Variable (donkey) Hand Passes Pass ------------------- hectares---------------------
Total Area Cultivated 55 56 57 56 Maize
Traditional 20 With Tied Ridges 20 15 15
Red Sorghum Traditional 60 With Tied Ridges 60 68 60
White Sorghum Traditional 80 70 With Tied Ridges 10 80 95
Millet Traditional 318 315 318 188 With Tied Ridges 05 127
Peanuts 76 86 79 71
Total Cereals Production -------------------- kgs Per Househol 2103 2604 2970 3354 Per Resident 10 186 212 240
Net Farm Income3 000s FCFA-------------------Per Household 2153 2532 2732 2964 Per Worker 308 362 390 423
ource Nagy et al 1985 Based un application of 100 kgha 14-23-15 fertilizer at planting and 50 kgha urea four weeks after planting (20 man hoursha labor requirement for each application) Labor times of 75 man hoursha for tying of the ridges by hand 20 man hoursha to machine tie with two passes and 2 man hoursha to machine tie in one pass Yield estimates in kgsha for trashyditional practices and the technological interventions of fertilization and tied ridges in combination are as follows maize - not fertilized (1090 to 1730) red sorghum (672 to 1236) white sorghum (472 to 913) and millet (320 to 660) 1985 fertilizer and grain prices were used Based on 14 residentshousehold
4 Annualized cost of 4400 FCFA for machine subtracted in columns 3 and 4 Based on 7 active workershousehold
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Information from farmer questionnaires and field staff indicates that the major problem with the MRT is its awkwardness However most farmers were able to operate the MRT fairly efficiently after 15 to 30 minute- in the field Several engineering features require redesigning but the overshyall consensus of the field trials is that the MRT or a machine similar to the MRT can be used at present not only as a labor-saving device but also as a yield-increasing technology
Herbicides Herbicides could be used to decrease the labor constraint in the peak-labor-demand plantingweeding period (Spencer 1985) At present acquiring herbicides in the WASAT is difficult and little research has been done to tailor herbicides to WASAT conditions Both broad leaf and slender leaf plants as well as various trees are grown in association in the same field and these are sensitive to different herbicides
Economic analysis in northern Nigeria (Ogungbile 1980) suggests that weeding either by animal traction or manually is more profitable than herbicides at present Herbicides will find an increasing role in the WASAT only when cropping intensities are increased to the point where they require more intensive weeding (Norman 1982) and when the opportunity cost of labor substantially increases (Ruthenberg 1980)
3) Improved Varietal Pesearch
Few improved varieties of food crops are used by farmers in the WASAT Significant yield increases for varietal improvement from on-station reshysearch have been observed but a large yield gap between on-station and onshyfarm yields exists especially for the staple crops of sorghum and millet Experimental results suggest that the cereal y6 eld gap is less for local than for improved cultivars (Matlon 1985) Yields from FSU on-farm trials in Burkina for improved maize red and white sorghum and cowpeas rarely exceeded the yields of local varieties of the traditional management treatments (FSU Annual Reports)
Analysis by ICRISAT of sorghum and millet cultivars indicate that the on-station selection procedures under a high management environment (high fertility tillage and water management) have resulted in elite cultivars being more management responsive than local varieties but at the same time inferior at lower management levels (Matlon 1985) This suggests that breeding objectives should include screening and selection procedures that can provide cultivars which also exploit moderate management levels and that there is a need to hasten the process of variety evaluation onto onshyfarm trials (Matlon 1985) With the current selection procedures the full impact from varietal development will only be felt in the WASAT when farmers utilize a higher degree of improved management practices--practices such as an MRT-fertilizer combination--which would not take place until the intermediate run Also even if change ocur in the present breeding objectives leading to the development of new varieties able to exploit moderate management levels these vayleties will only be available in the intermediate run (five to ten years)
4) Crop Associations
Experiment station studies of different crop associations have received increased attention in the WASAT over the past 15 years (Fussell
53
and Serafini 1985) Significant aggregate biological yields from intensishyfying cereal-cowpea associations have been obtained in research station trials (Fussell and Serafini 1985 Muleba1985) Increased legume densishyties however are normally accompanied by serious insect infestation probshylems requiring pesticide spraying The role that biological nitrogen fixashytion has played in obtaining the increased aggregate yields in cerealshylegume associations in the WASAT is yet to be determined (Fussell and Serifini 1985) Studies have shown however that under WASAT water stress and mineral deficiency conditions some legumes may contribute to nitrogen losses (Pieri 1985)
On-farm researcher-iianaged trials indicate that the most limiting facshytors in the performance of cereal-cowpea association intensification are soil moisture and fertility (Ohm et al 1985a) Under favorable condishytions of moisture and fertility it is profitable to increase cowpeadensity but under less favorable conditions the present practice of the farmers seems to be more dependable and profitable (Ohm et al 1985a)Under improved management (tied ridges fertilizer and pesticides) cowpeadensities somewhat higher than those currently used by farmers appear to be economically viable (Ohm et al 1985a) There are however instances where increased cowpea density has decreased sorghum yields (Matlon 1983)
Socio-economic studies indicate that farmers are primarily concerned with maintaining cereal yields and that modifications in cowpea densities and cultural practices that decrease cereal yield will not be adopted bythe farmer (Sawadogo et al 1985 Diehl and Sipkens 1985 Matlon 1983)Labor data analysis indicates that intensified cereal-cowpea associations substantially increase planting and weeding requirements (Matlon 1983)Depending on the planting date intensification can change the distribution of labor demand and reduce the amount of labor required for final weedingbecause of the cowpeas competition with the weeds Although returns to labor can be greater under intensification farmers do cite lower cereal yields and increased labor demands as the prime reasons for not intensifyshying (Matlon 1983)
Limited research has been carried out on cropping associations involvshying trees in the WASAT Alley cropping--food crops grown in the alleyformed by rows of leguminous shrubs or trees--could form one basis for changing traditional shifting cultivation practices (Kang et al 1984)Alley cropping does possess many potential advantages such as providingmulch firewood biologically fixed nitrogen animal feed and erosion conshytrol However it is very management-intensive and has not been thoroughly researched in the WASAT
Some intensification of cereal and legume crops can take place in the intermediate run once the physical environment is improved but significant crop intensification alley cropping and biological nitrogen fixation would contribute their greatest potential in the long run after farmers first increase their cereal production
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Sequencing of Technologies and Farm Management Practices in the WASAT
With falling cereal yields and the decline of the bush-fallow system in high density population areas the first necessity is to develop new technology systems to increase cereal yields Based upon the information of the proposed technologies as to their present agronomic technical and economic feasibility (Table 1) the overall sequential pattern of technoshylogical adoption would be to use the technologies available in the short run to alleviate the soil fertilitvwater retention constraints ie fertilizer tied ridges diguettes and dikes This would require alleviatshying the labor constraint in the peak-labor-demand period of plantingweedshying through available labor-saving technologies ie animal traction and the MRT
Once the agronomic environment has been improved new variety developshyment will be facilitated The development of these varieties will take time and be available in the intermediate run as compared with the more immediate availability of the tied ridgingfertilization technology combishynation Crop association intensification and diversification and other long run technologies and farm management techniques would then be incorshyporated as they become technically feasible Thus the overall sequential pattern of technology adoption can be dichotomized into a) technologies for the present cereal based farming systems and b) technologies and farm manshyagement practices for the Euture (intensified) farming systems
Technologies for the Present Farming Systems
Production constraints household endowments and household decision making characteristics are heterogeneous in the WASAT leiding to differshyences in the technology requirements and adoption patterns of various households Thus the delineation of recommendation domains can aid the targeting of research extension and government policy and programs This section of the chapter first delineates a set of recommendation domains based on production constraints household characteristics and resource endowments The technologies available in the short run (Table 1) are then sequenced as to the probable adoption pattern within each recommendation domain
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Recommendation Domains Based on Production Constraints
The labor endowment shortage is homogeneous throughout the WASAT but access to land is not Old settlement high-population-density areas exhibit limited to zero fallow rotation due to the limited access to land In general land quality and yield in the older settlement areas is lower than on the frontier which has access to land ind utilizes the traditional bush-fallow system Both intensification and extensification options are available on the frontier whereas only the intensification options are available in the old settlement areas due to the limited access to land Thus technology adoption choices are different in the two areas and a delineation can be made on a population density basis as follows
A Old settlementhigh-population-density areas (ie Central Plateau Burkina Faso)
B Frontierlow-population-density areas
Recommendation domains can also be made on an agroclimatic basis Higher rainfall and relatively higher soil fertility in a general north to south direction within the WASAT vary technology requirements and expected adoption patterns
Recommendation Domains Based on Household Characteristics and Endowments
Farmers have been found to be mainly risk averse (Binswanger 1980 Dillon and Scandizzo 1978) However the risk aversion of farmers within a group may range between high risk aversion and low risk avoidance depending on their initial endowments ie wealth Theoretically the risk that a household will assume is positively correlated with household wealth-shywealth being largely embodied in livestock holdings (mainly cattle) Wealth can also be considered positively correlated with the ability of a household to invest in purchased inputs or absorb larger losses in a poor rainfall season Household characteristics are further delineated into the type cf traction (manual or animal) presently being used This leads to the following recommendation domains Ysed on the household characteristics of risk wealth and type of traction
I A high risk aver3e low wealth manual tillage household--may only adopt low riT technologies and has limited ability to buy purshychased inputs
II A low risk averse high wealth animal traction household--chance of technology adoption higher due to the greater ability to buy purchased inputs
III A low risk averse high wealth manual traction household--chance of technology adoption higher due to greater ability to buy purshychased inputs but has not yet made the transition to animal traction
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Six recommendation domains are presented in Table 5 based upon the household characteristics and population density (access to land) typoloshygies described earlier The recommendation domains are for the 500 to 900 mm annual rainfall regions The potential sequential adoption patterns of the available technologies in the short run for the present cereal based farming systems--complex fertilizers tied ridging animal traction and the MRT--are presented in Table 5 for each recommendation domain The sequencing patterns of the technologies for each recommendation domain are based on the previous discussion of farmers adoption strategies where technologies are adopted singly or in clusters in a logical agronomic and economR sequence This is discussed for each recommendation domain below
IA High Risk Averse Central Plateau Manual Households
With limited access to land limited ability to buy purchased inputs and high risk aversion the opportunities for the household in the first stage of technology adoption are to manually construct tied ridges and use other water retention techniques such as diguettes which use available famshyily labor Linear programming (LP) results indicate that up to 1 hectare could be put in tied ridges manually by the average household which would increase production and income (Table 3 column 1) Also survey results indicated that households used tied ridging at FSU village sites and did tied ridging between 13 and 1 hectare per household (Ohm et al 1985a) Tied ridging is agronomically feasible and economically profitable For this highly risk averse group tied ridging is especially attractive beshycause there is no ris 5of losing a cash outlay with only family labor being utilized for ridging
The next step in the sequence of technology adoption would involve a cash outlay Fertilizer is an option on the land in tied ridges espeshycially in the more southern regions of the WASAT where rainfall is higher Fertilizer use although profitable (Table 2 column 4 Nedogo) would be limited by the small hectarage under tied ridges and the tendency of this group of farmers to avoid risks
Animal traction in combination with the MRT would seem to be the next step in the sequence This combination is not only labor saving but yield increasing as well The addition of the MRT to the machinery complement increases the internal rate of return from 10 for animal traction fWeedshying) alone (Jaeger 1984) to between 30-40 on the Central Plateau LP analysis (Table 3 column 4) indicates that the combination of animal tracshytion and the MRT enables the construction of tied ridges on up to 65 of available cereal land on the average or representative farm and increases total cereals production and income above that of traditional practices and
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Table 5 Recommendation domains and likely sequential adoption patterns of technologies in the WASAT
1 2Household Central Plateau Frontier Characteristics A B
I High risk aversion 1 Manual tied ridges-diguettes 1 Animal traction 3
Low wealth endowment 2 Animal traction-MRT 2 MRT Manual traction 3 Fertilizer 3 Fertilizer
4 Improved varieties 4 Improved varieties
II Low risk aversion 1 Fertilizer 1 MRT High wealth endowment 2 MRT 2 Fertilizer Animal traction 3 Improved varieties 3 Improved varieties
III Low risk aversion 1 Fertilizer 1 Animal traction High wealth endowmont 2 Animal traction 2 MRT Manual traction 3 MRT 3 Fertilizer
4 Improved varieties 4 Improved varieties
1 High density population limited access to land and in general lower quality land than the Frontier
2 Low population density access to land and in generel higher quality land than the Central Plateau
T MRT - the mechanical ridge tier
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17
manual tied ridging With the increase in income households would then be in a better position to purchase fertilizers Internal rates of return for an animal traction-MRT-fertilizer combination range from 25-30 and increase production and income over the animal traction-MRT combination (contrast Table 3 column 4 with Table 4 column 4)
IB High Risk Averse Frontier Manual Households
Households included in this category could follow the manual tied ridgingdiguette regime of Type IA households on maize compound land but may find it as profitable and less labor constraining to maintain the bushshyfallow system for sorghum and millet and use animal traction The present internal rate of return using donkey and ox traction has been estimated to be 31 and 21 respcCtively for a frontier area but the rates of return can be doubled with increased utilization thus making the technology very profshyitable (Jaeger 1984) Next in the sequential adoption pattern would be the use of the MRT The use of the MRT by households may not be used conshycurrently with the introduction of animal traction but the incentive for its utilization would increase as population pressure increased and land became more scarce With internal rates of return of 35-40 for donkey traction and 25-30ior ox traction mechanical ridge tying at the frontier could be expected The third step in the sequence would be the addition of fertilizer
IlA Low Risk Averse Central Plateau Animal Traction Households
Animal traction households exhibiting a lower risk aversion and a greater ability to buy purchased inputs will likely find fertilizer as the best option particularly in the more southern areas of the WASAT with higher rainfall The option of using animal traction to extensify is not available because of the limited access to land and thus the next technolshyogy in the sequential adoption pattern would be to use animal traction to intensify using the MRT
IIB Low Risk Averse Frontier Manual Households
As in IB the extensification option of using animal traction will continue to dominate until increased population pressure limits access to land thus making the intensification option of using the MRT more attracshytive--especially in the northern areas of the WASAT where the rainfall is more limited and Aserratic soil fertility declines fertilizer will become more profitable
IIIA Low Risk Averse Central Plateau Manual Households
Households in this category are expected to choose fertilizer over manual tying of ridges because they have the ability to purchase it and are less averse to taking risk Manual tied ridging could also be an option at first but presented with the opportunity of using an animal traction-MRT combination households would probably choose the latter
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IIIB Low Risk Averse Frontier Manual Tillage Households
Although these households would not be averse to using the land-subshystituting inputs a higher payoff is likely to come from extensification using animal traction in the initial stages of technology introduction As population pressure on the higher quality land increases increased utilshyization of the MRT and fertilizer would be expected
In summary different sequential adoption patterns exist for the difshyferent recommendation domains Adoption is expected to be more rapid by those in the low risk aversehigh wealth categories Given the present levels of research exteksion and government program support some groups such as the high risk averselow wealth old settlement farmers may never adopt any of the technologies
Tied ridging chemical fertilizer and animal traction have all been potentially available to farmers in the WASAT over the last two decades Yet little adoption of these technologies for cereal production has taken place Our hypothesis for this lack of adoption is that while the indivishydual technologiuts may be technically and economically feasible the ecoshynomic impact of individual technologies for the level of risk involved has not been sufficiently high Both farm trials and whole-farm modeling indishycate a substantially higher impact from the simultaneous introduction of all three technologies including the MRT The combined introduction of these technologies alleviates the soil fertility soil water and labor constraints and provides tilarge economic incentive at low levels of risk
The requirement th t the available technologies be introduced simulshytaneously to satisfy farmers risk and profit levels before they will be adopted is in conflict with the empirical finding that farmers adopt innoshyvations sequentially An alternative is to wait until new technologies are developed that satisfy the high profit-low risk criteria so that they will be adopted individually in a sequential manner Another alternative is to use support programs in view of the pressing nature of the problems in the WASAT Support trograms would have to take into consideration the sequenshytial nature of adoption while trying to achieve total package adoption as quickly as possible Animal traction farmers may adopt an MRTfertilizer package simultaneously given high economic incentives and support programs but clearly for manual farmers (the majority) the combined introduction of animal traction the MRT and a fertilizer package all at once in one year is too great
The main thrust of the support program should be to select the first technology within each recommendation donain (Table 5) and provide economic incentives that make the level of risk of the technology acceptable to farmers For example the first technology in the sequence of recommendashytion domains IB and IIB (Table 5) is animal traction Support programs
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would be required to deal with the pre-conditions for animal traction adopshytion (as discussed in Chapters IV and V) and provide adequate economic incentives At a later period when farmers are acquainted with animal traction support programs would deal with the next technology in the sequence for each recommendation domain Following this procedure will reduce the adoption time between technologies within the package The supshyport programs should lead to the adoption of a soil fertility-water retention-labor saving technology package within each recommendation domain Without support programs technology adoption of the present techshynologies available to the WASAT will be very slow with some farmers--in particular the high risk averselow wealth farmers--not adopting any of the technologies
Technologies for Future Farming Systems
The long-run goal of technology introduction for future farming sysshytems is to change the upgraded dominant cereal-based farming system into a more intensified cereal-foragelivestock-cash crop farming systemInformation on the agronomic and economic feasibility of the technologies that may come into play in future farming systems is incomplete making it impossible to sequence the individual technologies as was done for technolshyogies available for present farming systems
Improvements in the present cereal-based farming systems will set the stage for a more intensive crop association and rotation regime Given the yield increase from the fertilizertied ridgesimproved variety combinashytion an estimation has been made that moderate cereal surpluses could be expected in the WASAT in the future with the adoption of these technologies (Savadogo 1986) This would make it possible to shift some production out of cereals and utilize available land labor and capital on more intensive cerealforagecash crop rotations--especially cereallegume rotations that could provide biological nitrogen fixation and reduce the costs of and dependency upon outside sources of nitrogen
Feed availability would increase livestock numbers and improve animal traction not only by better nutrition but also by shifting to more oxen power and away from the lower draft donkey power that dominates low qualityforage farming systems This would mean better crop residue incorporation and green manuring opportunities With increased livestock numbers in proximity to the household more manure would be available Although farmshyers would initially adopt these technologies sequentially the process of adoption would be an iterative one as the more intensive use of one techshynology allows a more intensive use of another ie increased forageallows more cattle to be kept near the compound resulting in more manure which in turn may allow more forage hectarage
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Footnotes
It would be more appropriate to measure risk in terms of a time series
variance (ie over many years) as opposed to a cross sectional varishyance method (ie over many farmers in one year) as used here Three years of data make it difficult to undertake a time series risk analyshysis For a textbook treatment of risk analysis see Anderson et al 1977
2 Tied ridges (TR) are small depressions made between crop rows either by
hand tillage or by a combination of animal traction and hand tillage When constructed by hand depressions 32 cm long x 24 cm wide x 16 cm deep spaced 1-12 meters apart are made between the rows When conshystructed with animal traction the fields are first ridged with a cultishyvator (houe manga) which is equipped with a middle sweep to create a furrow This is then followed by hand tillage to make a 16 cm high ridge perpendicular to the furrow every one to two meters The depresshysions catch and hold water after a rain and increase water infiltration and retention Due to the larger water holding capacity of animal tracshytion tied ridges water retention ability is greater than that of manually tied ridges
One exception should be noted Traditionally maize is grown on the relshyatively higher fertility compound land Three years of on-farm researcher-manageu trials experimenting with maize on non-compound land with TR in general did not show significant yield increases (FSU Annual Report 1983 Lang et al 1984 and Ohm et al 1985a) These expershyiments appear to indicate the need to first utilize organic material or fertilizer to convert the less fertile land into the equivalent of comshypound land before putting the tied ridges on it if maize is to be grown there
4 All the FSU economic analyses have been carried out using subsidized fertilizer prices (40 to 50) Clearly the economic profitability would be lower and the incidence of fertilizer cash outlay loss greater utilizing unsubsidized prices
Trials examining the possibility of growing maize on good sorghum land and sorghum on good millet land by upgrading the soil through a fertilshyizertied ridge combination were also conducted Three years of onshyfarm researcher-managed maize on sorghum land trials proved inconclushysive (FSU Annual Reports) and although a sorghum on millet land experishyment showed promise sorghum plant establishment was a problem (Ohm et al ]985a)
6 The observed farmer adoption rates in different regions correlate well
with experimental evidence which sugests that yields are less variable and more responsive to fertilizer and that there is less risk of losing fertilizer cash outlay as rainfall levels and land quality improves
62
When questioned farmers said that they saw the value of fertilizer but that credit and availability were obstacles to greater use All complex fertilizers are imported from outside the WASAT and usually distribution within each country is handled by a para-statal organization
8 An FSU on-farm farmer-managed experiment involving tied ridges and
mulch (5 Tha) on maize was conducted in two village sites in Burkina in 1984 (Ohm et al 1985a p 17) The mulch part of the experiment was abandoned since only 6 of the 50 farmers had access to sufficient mulch
The MRT is attached to an animal drawn cultivator with one large middle sweep The MRT is essentially a paddle wheel (45 cm in diameter) with four paddles one scraping the ground building up earth until it is tripped by the operator every 1-12 to 2 meters to create the tie in the furrow between the two ridges
10 Analysis of five management factors--plowing tied ridges fertilization
timing planting arrangement and weeding timing--indicated that the major determinants of the yield gap between the experiment station and farmers fields were plowing and tied ridges (Matlon 1985) Also the major problems observed in the on-farm trials with the elite cultivars are drought and heat stress related leading to poor seedling establishshyment and poor flowering and grain filling ability Spittlebug problems have occurred on the new sorghum variety of Framida (Ohm et al 1985b) and striga continues to be a problem with most new sorghum varieties
11 The development of hybrid varieties such as the hybrid sorghums bred for
the Sudan (Gebisa 1986) may play a role in obtaining moderate level management response The poor marketing infrastructures of the WASAT however vould prevent hybrids from being a technology that could be used in the short run Present breeding for disease and pest resistance in sorghim and millet is encouraging (Andrews 1986 Andrews et al 1985) and is expected to play an important role in increasing cereal yields in the intermediate run
12 Empirical evidence linking reduced risk aversion with higher levels of
wealth is not available in the WASAT It has been a standard part of decision theory that at higher levels of wealth risk aversion would decrease (Anderson et al 1977) This proposition seems to be consisshytent with field interviews with farmers about their objectives (see Chapter IV page of this report)
13 Not included among the categories is a high risk averse low wealth
animal traction household While this category undoubtedly exists in the WASAT the number of households in this category would alot be large
14 The recommendation domains presented in Table 5 are discussed at the
inter-household level which considers resource endowments and decisionshymaking in the context of a family unit vis-a-vis another family unit
63
The recommendation domains could also be discussed at the intrashyhousehold level which considers differences--in gender age and access to and control of resources within the household--which may lead to difshyferences in the sequencing and types of technologies adopted by the various sub-groups (see McKee 1983 Nagy et al 1985)
15 The opportunity cost of labor (wage rate from outside employment) ranges
from 30 to 50 FCFAhr (FSU unpublished survey data) At an opportunity cost of 35 FCFAhr farmers would not have lost money by undertaking the construction of tied ridges (Table 2)
16 Calculations made using the procedure by Jaeger (1984) and adding apshy
propriate costs and revenues based on FSU on-farm farmer-managed trials to estimate the yield increases from the use of the MRT (Ohm et al 1985b Nagy et al 1986)
17 The weekly available labor hour figures used in the model are based on
conservative estimates Increasing the labor availabilities by 10 to 20 for the tied ridging period andor allowing tied ridging to also take place in the following period results in tied ridges being conshystructed on all the cereal land
CHAPTER VI
POLICY IMPLICATIONS AND FUTURE AVENUES FOR RESEARCH AND EXTENSION
This report has proposed that the overall sequence of technology intervention for the WASAT is 1) technologies that improve the agronomicenvironment ie water retention and soil fertility improvement With appropriate policy and institutional support this technology combination can be immediately implemented 2) the use when they become available of improved varieties that can exploit moderate input levels If varieties are developed for the moderate input levels recommended in 1) above this techshynology is expected to be available for farmer adoption in the next five to ten years and 3) more intensive livestockcereal systems in the better agricultural areas and a shift back to extensive grazing and forestry in the more marginal agricultural regions There are many types of technolshyogies for those intensive livestockcerealcash crop systems that can now be productively studied on the experiment station and in on-farm trials so that these systems can be available to farmers after the next decade
The first priority of the agricultural policy research and extension community in the WASAT is to develop technologies to increase the yields of the cereal-based systems dominate the The presentfarming which area focus should be on alleviating the low soil fertilitylow soil water retenshytion constraints Complex fertilizers the water retention methods of tied ridges diguettes and dikes and the labor-saving technologies of animal traction and the mechanical ridge tier are a]rady available for extension in much of the region
Tied ridging chemical fertilizer and animal traction however have all been potentially available to farmers in the WASAT for more than two decades Yet there has been little adoption by WASAT food crop producers of any of these three innovations This is because there was little ecoshynomic incentive to adopt these technologies prior to the 1960s because food consumption needs were being met Moreover there was little export demand for sorghum and millct Hence there was little demand for new cereal technologies However with increased population recent droughtsand the deterioration of the soil quality in the higher population regions during the intervening years the demand for new cereal technology has subshystantially increased
Credit fertilizer and animal traction non-availability and lack of information have all been cited as reasons for the low level of farmer adoption of the above technologies in the WASAT From our perspective the principal reason for the failure to adopt these individual components is that the economic impact of each of the three components has not been sufshyficiently high by itself Fertilizer utilization is too risky in poorrainfall years without some simultaneous method to increase the availabilshy
water the critical times of plant development themselves do not resolve the low soil fertility problem Family labor
ity of at Tied ridges by
65
availability constrains the amount of tied ridging construction It apshypears from the on-farm trials and the whole-farm modeling results that all three technologies (including the MRT) would need to be introduced togetherbefore economic incentive and risk levels are adequate for technology adoption Introducing the technologies together would alleviate the soil fertiltty soil water and labor constraints and provide high economic incentives at levels of risk that would be attractive to farmers However as previously discussed farmers adopt technologies sequentially and not as a package
An option is to wait for the research community to develop new techshynologies that will individually provide a sufficient economic incentive at a level of risk that is attractive to farmers Another option is to develop support programs that will enable farmers to sequentially adopt the available technologies en route to total package adoption The review of the constraints to cereal production and the review of the available and future technologies for the WASAT (Chapters IV and V) point out that such individual technologies will not be available in the short run and will probably not be available in the intermediate run (10-15 years) The pressing problems of the WASAT require more immediate solutions which can only be brought about by support programs to facilitate the adoption of the available technologies If the package of available technologies is introshyduced without special government programs farmers are expected to adoptthe technologies in the sequence given for each recommendation domain as outlined in Chapter V (Table 5) Adoption by recommendation domain would vary with those in the low risk aversehigh wealth categories adopting the technologies first groups such asSome the high risk averselow wealth old settlement farmers may never adopt any of the technologies
Implementation of a support program to increase the present cereal production in the WASAT would include
a) credit programs for the cash outlays required by farmers for fershytilizer and animal traction
b) farm mnagement information especially on efficient utilization of animal traction and fertilizer from the extension service
c) development of the input and product markets
thrustA main of the support program would be to select the technologieswithin each recommendation dolvin that farmers would most likely adopt
described Ta|IlAfirst (as in 5) and provide the economic incentives and pre-conditions for farmers to adopt the technology Once farmers become acquainted with the technology the next technology would be supported in a similar manner and so on until the total technology package was adoptedAppropriate economic incentives and pre-conditions would ensure that techshynology adoption proceeded as quickly as possible so that all the farmers could adopt the total package in the shortest possible time
66
To facilitate new-technology introduction some of the potential typesof research and extension institutional support programs are mentioned below
Priorities for Extension and Local Governments
The highest priorities for extension and local government agencies involve focusing on the soil fertilitywater retention technologies of manshyual tied ridging diguettes and dikes complex fertilizers animal traction and the mechanical ridge tier These technologies should be put forward on demonstration fields (using local farmer participation where appropriate) individually and as packages for each of the recommendation domains
There is a role for local government agencies in the construction and maintenance of large dikes and barriers to regulate the speed of rainfall runoff at the village level Within each region individual households would either construct tied ridges andor diguettes--whichever is the most appropriate for the area Where diguettes are used assistance from local government agencies may be required for correct contour placement
A critical role will have to be undertaken by extension agencies to ensure that the appropriate preconditions exist for animal traction adopshytion The preconditions of shorter learning curves for both the farmer and draft animals and higher utilization rates can be facilitated by animal traction programs Extension agencies could be involved in training farmshyers (technical operation and animal maintenance) and in the training of draft animals until a draft animal market develops Shortening the learnshying curve will itseli increase utilization rates which can be further increased by an appropriate complement of implements including the mechanshyical ridge tier
Priorities for On-Farm Testing
The prototype IITA mechanical ridge tier requires further modificashytions at the engineering level to reduce its weight and awkwardness and increase its adaptability for hook-up with a wide range of cultivatorplow equipment (Nagy et al 1986a) Other possibilities include an automatic tripping device and even new design concepts which need to be rigorously field tested with farmer participation As modifications and new design concepts are developed they must be made available to the extension system and local manufacturers and provisions made for information feedback to the on-farm testing agencies The mechanical ridge tier is an implement that can be made locally and every attempt by the local extension agencies to provide prototype copies to local manufacturers should be undertaken Locally-made mechanical ridge tiers enable location-specific adaptations arising from a local manufacturerfarmer interchange
Priorities also include further on-farm testing of diguettes and of modifications of diguettes and barriers Further on-farm testing across the WASAT of raw and acidulated rock phosphate from all the major rock
67
phosphate deposits in the WASAT is required to evaluate the agronomic and economic feasibility of this technology
Priorities for Experimental Research Stations
On-station crop improvement programs require a change in the presentemphasis on screening and selection under high management conditions--manshyagement conditions much higher than can be provided by WASAT farmers in the intermediate run Thus crop improvement programs in the WASAT should conshycentrate on developing varieties that show stability over time and exhibit a response curve that exploits moderate management levels Selection must be focused on resistance to important pests and diseases as well as producshytion superiority under varying levels of soil productivity and available soil moisture--all of which contribute to production stability This change in crop development goals requires new screening and selection proshycedures and an increased interdisciplinary effort between on-station and on-farm research
The designing of labor-saving devices for fertilizer applicationplanting and other field operations should be further studied for both manual and animal traction farmers where applicable Research on water retention methods other than tied ridges or diguettes is required for those areas where these two technologies are not effective especially on the sandier soils characterizing much of the Sahelo-Sudanian zone
CHAPTER VII
SUMMARY
Whole-farm modeling was critical in identifying the potential effect of new technologies and in evaluating the seasonal labor bottleneck As onshyfarm trials produce more technologies that pass the yield and profit criteria whole farm modeling analysis will become increasingly important to identify the interactions of technology components and estimate their potenshytial impact at the farm level
A major contribution of the Purdue farming systems research project was not the identification of the individual constraints but rather a study of their interconnected nature It is necessary for farming systems research projects to concentrate on the well-known synergistic nature of agricultural inputs and not be satisfied with minimum cost input changes which also have minimal effects on yields or profits
The seasonal labor constraint has been stressed as the principal barshyrier to agricultural development in the WASAT and in other semi-arid areas in Africa However a more agronomic orientation to the analysis of the water requirement and 1oil fertility problems was necessary The combined effect of improved water retention increases in soil fertility and overshycoming the seasonal labor bottleneck with the mechanical tied ridger had a substantial impact on farm income Since the combined effects are much larger than the individual effects it is unfortuuiLte that farmers tend to adopt one input at a ime Governmental support of the combined practices appears to be necessary to facilitate their combined introduction
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Dillon J L and P Scandizzo 1978 Risk attitudes of subsistence farmers in northeast Brazil A sampling approach American Journal of Agricultural Economics 60425-35
Doster D H B A McCarl and P R Robbins 1981 Purdue crop budget model B-96 EC-541 Agricultural Economics Department Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Dugue P 1985 Soil preparation in the Sudan-Sahelian zone Prospects and constraints Tn Appropriate technologies for farmers in semishyarid West Africa H W Ohm and J G Nagy (eds) International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Eicher Carl K 1983 West Africas agrarian crisis Paper prepared for the fifth bi-annual conference of the West African Association of Agricultural Economists Abidjan Ivory Coast
FSUSAFGRAD 1983 FSUSAFCRAD 1982 Annual Report International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Fussell L K and P G Serafini 1985 Crop associations in the semishyarid tropics of West Africa In Appropriate technologies for farmers in semi-arid West Africa H W Ohm and J G Nagy (eds) Internashytional Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Gebisa Ejeta 1986 Breeding sorghum hybrids for irrigated and rainfed conditions in the Sudan Proceedings International drought symposium on food grain production in the semi-arid regions of Sub-Saharan Africa Nairobi Kenya
Ghodake R D and J B Hardaker 1981 Whole-farm modeling for assessshyment of dryland technology International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRlSAT) Patancheru Andhra Pradesh India
Hardaker J Brian Jock R Anderson and John L Dillon 1984 Perspecshytives on assessing the impacts of improved agricultural technologies in developing countries Australian Journal of Agricultural Economics 2887-108
international Fertilizer Development Center 1985 Fertilizer research program for Africa The fate sources and management of nitrogen and phosphorous fertilizers in Sub-Saharan Africa Muscle Shoals Alabama
72
Jaeger W K 1983 Animal traction and resource productivity Evidence from Upper Volta Paper presented at the third annual farming systems research symposium Kansas State University Manhattan Kansas
Jaeger W K and J H Sanders 1985 Profitability of animal traction Field study in Burkina Faso In Appropriate technologies for farmers in semi-arid West Africa I W Ohm and J G Nagy (eds) Internashytional Programs in Agriculcure Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Kang B T C F Wilson and T L Lawson 1984 Alley cropping A stable alternative to shifting cultivation International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) Ibadan Nigeria
Kowal J M and A H Kassam 1978 Agricultural Ecology of Savanna A Study of West Africa Oxford University Press Oxford England
Lang M G R P Cantrell H W Ohm and S Sawadogo 1984 FSUSAFGRAD 1983 Annual Report International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Lang Mahlon C Ronald P Cantrell and John H Sanders 1983 Identifyshying farm level constraints and evaluating new technology in UpperVolta Staff Paper Department of Agricultural Economics Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Lang Mahlon G Ronald P Cantrell Herbert W Ohm and Sibiri Sawadogo 1984 FSUSAFGRAD 1983 Annual Report International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Mann Charles K 1978 Packages of practices A step at a time with clusters Studies in Development Middle East Technical University Ankara Turkey
Martinez Juan Carlos and Jose Roman Arauz 1984 Developing appropriate technologies through on-farm research The lessons from Caisan Panama Agricultural Administration 1797-114
Matlon P J 1985 A critical review of objectives methods and progress to date in sorghum and millet improvement A case study of ICRISAT Burkina Faso In Appropriate technologies for farmers in semi-arid West Africa H W Ohm and J G Nagy (eds) International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Matlon Peter J 1983 The potential for increased food production in semi-arid West Africa Paper presented at the IFPRI-University of Zimbabwe Conference on Accelerating Agricultural Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa Victoria Falls Zimbabwe 29 August - 1 September
73
Matlon Peter J 1983 Technology evaluation Five case studies from West Africa In Coming full circle Farmers participation in the development of technology International Development Research Council (IDRC) Ottawa Ontario Canada
Matlon P J and D Spencer 1984 Increasing food production in Sub-Saharan Africa Environmental problems and inadequate technologicalsolutions American Journal of Agricultural Economics 56671-76
McCarl B A 1982 REPFARM Design calculation and interpretation ofthe linear programming model Station Bulletin No 385 AgriculturalExperiment Station Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
McKee Catherine 1984 Methodological challenges in analyzing the houseshyhold in farming systems research Intra-household resource allocation In proceedings of the Kansas State Universitys 1983 Farming SystemsSymposium C (ed)Flora Kansas State University Manhattan Kansas
McMillan Della 1979 Agricultural development and migration in three villages outside Kaya Upper Volta Department of AgriculturalEconomics Purdue University W Lafayette MimeoIN USAID Contracts AFR-C-1257 amp 1258
McNamara R S 1985 The challenges for sub-Saharan Africa Sir John Crawford Memorial Lecture November 1 Consultative Group on Internashytional Agricultural Research Washington DC
Muleba N F Brockman and 1985D Kagne Variety development for associated cropping In Appropriate technologies for farmers in semi-arid West Africa H W Ohm and JG Nagy (eds) International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Nagy J G and HW Ohm 1986 FSUSAFGRAD 1985 Annual Report Internashytional Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Nagy J G L L Ames and H W Ohm 1985 Technology evaluation polshyicy change and farmer adoption in Burkina Faso International Programsin Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Nagy J G H W Ohm L L Ames and L D Schaber 1986a Analysis ofthe IITASAFGRAD mechanical ridge tier International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Nagy J G H W Ohm and Sibiri Sawadogo 1986b Burkina Faso A case study of the Purdue UniversitySAFGRAD farming systems project Intershynational Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiaila
74
Nicholson SE 1982 The Sahel A climatic perspective Club du S-Ihel Joint CILSS and OECD publication
Nicou R and C Charreau 1985 Soil tillage and water conservation in semi-arid West Africa In Appropriate technologies for farmers insemi-arid West Africa H W Ohm and J C Nagy (eds) International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Norman D W 1982 Socioeconoimc considerations in sorhgum farming sysshytems In Proceedings Sorghum in the Eighties International CropsResearch Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics Patancheru A P India
Norman D MW D Newman and I Ouedraogo 1981 Farm and villageproduction systems in the semi-arid tropics of West Africa An intershypretive review of research ICRISAT Research Bulletin No 4International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics(ICRISAT) Patancheru Andhra Pradesh India
Ogungbile A 0 1980 An evaluation of sole-crop production technology on small farms in northern Nigeria under different farm power sources A multiperiod linear programming approach PhD dissertation Iowa State University Ames Iowa
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Ohm Herbert W Joseph G Nagy and Christopher Pardy 1985a FSUSAFGRAD 1984 Annual Report International Programs in AgriculturePurdue University West Lafayette Indiana
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75
Reeves Edward B and Timothy Frankenberger 1982 Socio-economic conshystraints to the production distribution and consumption of sorghummillet and cash crops in North Kordstan Sudan Report No 2INTSORMIL Departments of Sociology and Anthropology University of Kentucky Lexington Kentucky
Rodriguez M 1982 Rapport Annuel 1982 Programme dagronomie du mais de IITASAFGRAD Ouagadougou Burkina Faso SAFGRAD International Institute of Tropical Agriculture
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Saunders Margaret 0 1980 Farming systems research unit working papersNumber 1 Agriculture in Upper Volta The institutional frameworkNumber 2 Local ecology population and ethnic groups in Upper Volta Number 3 The Mossi farming system of Upper Volta International Proshygrams in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Sawadogo Kimseyinga 1986 An analysis of the economic and sociodemoshygraphic determinants of household food consumption in OuagadougouBurkina Faso PhD dissertation Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
76
Sawadogo Sibiri Joseph G Nagy and Herbert W Ohm 1985 Cerealsshycowpea associations in Burkina Faso In Appropriate technologies for farmers in semi-arid West Africa H W Ohm and J G Nagy (eds)International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
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Stoop W A C M Pattanayak P J Matlon and W R Root 1982 A strategy to raise the productivity of subsistence farming systems in the West African semi-arid tropics In Sorghum in the Eighties Proceedings of the International Symposium on Sorghum Vol 2 Internashytional Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) Andhra Pradesh India pp 519-526
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77
APPENDIX 1
Administrative Report
In December 1978 Purdu University was awarded a two year contract with the US Agency for International Development to establish and operate a farming systems research unit in Burkina Faso as one of the components of the Semi-Arid Food Grain Research and Development Program (SAFGRAD)
This contract AFR-C-1472 had several mandates
1 Analyze small farm conditions and application of new technologies to those conditions
2 Formulate strategies regarding development and application of small farm relevant technology
3 Develop recommendations regarding physical research priorities and
4 Design help organize and analyze farmer field trials and studies as a means of performing the above
After several extensions the contract was amended in 1985 to reflect an additional set of objectives
1 Complete the transfer of the farming systems research methodology and techniques gained under this contract to national research organizashytions in the SAFGRAD countries
2 Finalize analysis of empirical research results
3 Finalize and publish guidelines for the methodological analytical or organizational and operational conduct of FSR in the SAFGRAD region
4 In conjunction with the SAFGRAD coordination office complete the groundwork for a West African regional FSR network
The termination of the project occurred on June 30 1986 Field activities in Burkina Faso were maintained through March 31 1986
The body of this report provides a description of the achievements of the project in terms of its mandate This section is the administrative report covering the implementation of this contrast
Contractor staff were provided logistic support by USAID in accordance with local AID procedures this included housing and utilities furniture household equipment and medical facilities to our long term staff In addition two vehicles were provided to our team for the duration of the project These vehicles were financed outside our contract but from SAFGRAD project funds
Initially the Purdue University team comprising an agricultural economist agronomist and rural sociologist were to be provided office
78
space at the Kamboinse Research station outside the city limits of Ouagadougou At the onset the FSU office was established in Ouagadougou then moved to Kamboinse however because the vehicles provided were not very reliable and transportation problems for local hire staff created major problems the office was relocated in Ouagadougou in agreement with SAFGRAD and USAID The FSU team continued to closely work with the ICRISAT and IITA teams who had responsibility for other resetrch components of the SAFGRAD program
At Purdue University a steering committee composed of the departments heads of Agronomy Agricultural Economics and SociologyAnthropology was established to guide activities of the FSU It frequently met to evaluate progress discuss issues relevant to the project and to formulate overall strategy for achieving project objectives
Technical coordination and backstopping for the project was maintained on the Purdue campus during the entire project period Dr Wilford H Morris provided this service from 1978 to June 1983 and Dr John H Sanders from July 1983 to termination On-campus administrative and logistic support was provided by the Office of International Programs in Agriculture under the directorship of T Kelley White and D Woods Thomas Other administrative staff responsible for project activities were Dr James L Collom associate director IPIA and Mrs Katy Ibrahim administrative assistant for the FSU project
In addition Dr Thomas was a participant of the SAFGRAD Technical Advisory Committee (TAG) and Consultative Committee (CC) of the SAFGRAD which met yearly in Burkina Faso These committees were a channel for review of all SAFGRAD activities in WestCentral Africa
During the seven and a half years the FSU project existed a total of nine long-term staff were on site in Burkina Faso for a total of 225 person months (PM)
Paul Christensen agronomist acting chief-of-party February 1979 to December 1981 - 33 PM
Richard Swanson rural sociologist October 1979 to July 1983 - 46 PM
Ram Singh economist and chief of party April 1979 to Macch 1981 - 24 PM
William Jaeger economistcomputer analyst December 1981 to June 1983 - 19 PM
Ronald Cantrell agronomistchief of party February 1982 to January 1984 - 23 PM
Mahlon Lang economist February 1982 to April 1984 - 26 PM
Herbert Ohm agronomistchief of party August 1983 to August 1985 -24 PM
Christopher Pardy economistcomputer analyst December 1983 to Tune 1983 - 16 PM
79
Joseph Nagy economistchief of party July 1984 to April 1985 14-
PM
In addition several short-term technical staff and consultants traveled to Burkina Faso for a total of 185 PM They are as follows
In 979 Kenneth Jones computer specialist at Purdue spent 50 PM to assist our in-country staff in organizing the data management That same year Ms Annie Buryer a sociologist spent 3 months in the field assisting our rural sociologist in setting up the village questionnaires In 1980 Herbert Butler rural sociologist spent 50 PM assisting in the analysis of the collected research dava In 1981 Stan Cohen computer specialist and agricultural economist spent 4 PM in the analysis of socio-economic data Len Malczynski computer specialist also spent 75 PM in the field in organizing the data Iandiing systems Anne-Marie Kaylen MS candidate in the Department of Agricultural Economics spent eight 1PM in the field to collect data for her thesis
Wilford H Morris technical coordinator for the FSU spent 200 PM in the field to provide support to our in-country team
In 1983 Jon Brandt agricultural economist spent 50 PM in Burkina Faso to assist Kirnseyinga Sawadogo in the collection of data for his PhD Thesis In 1984 Charles Rhykerd agronomist and soil specialist spent 75 PM oking with our staff in collecting soil samples and providing agronomLc support to our staff John Sanders as on-campus technical coordinator spent a total of 100 PM in the field working -ith the field economists
Purdue administrative staff also traveled to Burkina Faso during the existence of this project for a total of 45 person months
PM
T Kelley White acting director IPA 50 Paul Farris Head Agricultural Economics Dept 25 D Woods Thomas Director IPIA 150 Katy Ibrahim Administrative Assistant FSU 100 John Sanders Technical Coordinator 75 James L Collom Associate Director IPIA 50
Purdue University also conducted an internal evaluation of project activities in Burkina Faso in 1984 Members of the team who spent one week in-country were
Bernard Liska Dean School of Agricul-ire William Dobson Head Agricultural Economics Department Marvin Phillips Head Agronomy Department D Woods Thomas Director and Associate Dean International Programs in Agriculture
Sawadogo Sibiri participated in the On-Farm Experimentation Workshop University of Harare Zimbabwe (co-sponsored with CIMMYT) February 6-24
80
1984 the East Africa Agricultural Economics Program CIMMYT Nairobi Kenya October 27 to November 6 and in the evaluation of FSR programs with ACPOs in Senegal February 24 to March 1
Three Burkinabe staff enrolled at Purdue University for additional long-term training
Paul Compaore Agricultural Economics MS 1983-1985 Baya Toe Agricultural Economics MS 1983-1985 Kimseyinga Savadogo Agricultural Economics PhD 1979-1986
All have returned to Burkina Faso Dr Savadogo as a professor at the University of Ouagadougou Paul Compaore and Baya Toe are working in the Burkinabe Ministry of Agriculture
All of these educational activities contributed significantly to quality and dependable data collection and team spirit In addition these --aining activities were a significant factor in the transfer of host country technical and research staff to the national agricultural research program IBRAZ
Training for US graduate students was also made possible throughthis project Ms Anne-Marie Kaylen spent eight months in the field colshylecting data for her MS thesis in agricultural economics Also three graduate students funded under the PurdueINTSORMIL project spent eight months each in Burkina Faso working with our staff in support of the project while collecting data for their field research These were Michael Roth PhD Kimseyinga Savadogo PhD and Ann Bukowski MS Under FSU auspices William Jaeger developed his PhD dissertation on the economics of animal traction in Burkina Faso
The Farming Systems Unit project cooperated in the conduct of two regional workshops In September 1983 in cooperation with ICRISAT and IRAT a regional workshop on farmers participation in the development and evaluation of technology was held in Ouagadougou The proceedings of this workshop were published by che International Develpoment Research Centre In April 1985 the FSU in conjunction with the SAFGRAD Coordination Office conducted a workshop on technologies appropriate for farmers in semi-arid West Africa The proceedings of this workshop (in English and French) were distributed widely by the Office of International Programs in Agriculture
Thirty-six research-based technical papers were written and disshytributed under FSU auspices (See Appendix 2 for a listing of these publications)
The Farming Systems Unit project was not without administrative andor logistical problems Included were such things as unavoidable delays in transfer of funds to the field inadequacy of in-country transportation arrangements imperfection in project design establishing FSU relationshipwith national agricultural institutions and international development assistance organizations internal and international political events and the lack of ex-ante long-term contractual and funding commitments Excellent cooperation among the US national regional and international organizations involved in the program made it possible to resolve such issues with minimal impact on project productivity
81
Purdue University is deeply grateful to the OAUSTRC the SAFGRAD and its Consultative and Technical Advisory Committees USAIDOuagadougou AID Washington the government of Burkina Faso ICRISAT IITA and other enshytities for their assistance and cooperation in the conduct of this project Without such the objectives of this ambitious research could not have been attained
82
APPENDIX 2
Publications List
1 FSUSAFGRAD Staff Questionnaire Utilises pour le Etudes Sur les Systems de Production Agricoles Dans Des Villages Echantillons de Haute Volta Farming Systems Unit Project International Programs inAgriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana January 1980
2 Saunders M 0 Farming Systems Research Unit Working papers (1)Agriculture in Upper Volta The Institutional Framework (2) LocalEcology Population and Ethnic Groups in Upper Volta and (3) TheMossi Farming Systems in Upper Volta International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1980
3 Bruyer A Towards a Use of Survey Materials Report on Zone of Zorgho Farming Systems Unit Project International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana May 1980
4 Christensen P J Observations on the Major Classification of Field Trials Used in Farming Systems Research Farming Systems Unit Project International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana January 1981
5 Christensen P J Rock Phosphate Fertilizer in Upper Volta Part 1 Preliminary Report on Policy Implications of Cereal YieldCharacteristics Farming Systems Unit Project International Programsin Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana April 1981
6 Christensen P J and R A Swanson SAFGRADFSU 1981 Research Programs Farfling Systems Unit Project International Programs inAgriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana April 1981
7 Cohen S Costs and Returns of Household Crop Production NedogoUpper Volta Department of Agricultural Economics Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana September 1982
8 Lang M R Cantrell and J IfSanirs Identifying Constraints and Evaluating New Techology in the Purdue Farming Systems Project in Upper Volta in C B Flora (ed) Animals in the Farming SystemKansas State University Manhattan Kansas pp 184-206 1984
9 Jaeger W K Animal Traction and Resource Productivity Evidence from Upper Volta in C B Flora (ed) Animals in the Farming ystem ibid pp 431-460 1984
10 Singh R D E W Kehrberg and W H M Morris Small FarmProduction Systems ii Upper Volta Descriptive and Productive Function Analysis Experiment Station Bulletin Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1984
11 Lang M G and 24 Roth Risk Perceptions and Risk Management byFarmers in Burkina F-aso Paper presented at the Annual FarmingSystems Conference at Kansas State University in 1984
83
12 Rhykerd C L Constraints and Research Needs for Livestock Production in Upper Volta International Programs in AgriculturePurdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1984
13 Sanders J H The Evolution of Farming Systems Research Towards Where International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1984
14 Roth M and J H Sanders An Economic Evaluation of AgriculturalTechnologies and Implications for Development Strategies in Burkina Faso International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana First presented at the Annual Farming SystemsConference at Kansas State University in 1984
15 Lang M G and R C Cantrell Accenting the Farmers Role Purdue Farming Systems Unit in P Matlon R Cantrell D King and M Benoit-Cattin (edited) Coming Full Circle Farmers Participation inthe Development of Technology International Developmernt Research Center Ottawa Canada pp 63-70 1984
16 Lang M H Ohm and R Cantrell Adaptability Analysis of Farmer-Managed Trials in Farming Systems Research International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1985
17 Lang M G Agricultural Production and Marketing Activities of Women in Burkina Faso International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1985
18 Lang M G Crop and Livestock Marketing Patterns in Burkina FasoInternational Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1985
19 Pardy C R Cereal Sales Behavior Among Farm Households in FourVillages in Burkina Faso International Programs i- AgriculturePurdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1985
20 Nagy J G and H W Ohm Economic Analysis of Tied Ridges and Fertilization in Farmer-Managed Sorghum Trials in Burkina Faso Paperpresented at the International Conference of AgricultLal Economists Malaga Spain 1985
21 Nagy J G L L Ames and H W Ohm Tecchnology Evaluation PilicyChange and Farmer Adoption in Burkina Fa Paper presented at the Farming Systems Symposium Kansas State University Manhattan Kansas 1985
22 Schaber L A Literature Review of Soil Fertility in the West Africa Semi-Arid Tropics (WASAT) International Programs in AgriculturePurdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1985
23 Sanders J H J G Nagy and B Shapiro Developing and EvaluatingNew Agricultural Technology for the Sahel A Case Study in Burkina Faso Submitted to Economic Development and Cultural Change 1985
84
24 Ohm H W and J G Nagy (Editcrs) Appropriate Technologies for Farmers in Semi-Arid West Africa International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1985 359 pages (also available in French)
25 Roth M P Abbott J Sanders and L McKinzie An Application of Whole-Farm Modelling to New Technology Evaluation Central Mossi Plateau Burkina Faso International Programs in Agriculture Purdue bniversity West Lafayette Indiana 1986
26 Diallo N N and J C Nagy Burkini Faso Access and Control of Resources in the Farming Systems Recent Legal Political and Socio-Economic Changes Paper presented at the Conference on Gender Issues in Farming Systems Research and Extension Gainesville Florida February 1986
27 Nagy J C and L L Ames Evaluation of New Technologies in Burkina Faso Using Whole Farm Modelling Paper presented at the Annual Conference of American Agricultural Economists Reno Nevada 1986
28 Sanders J H and B Shapiro Agricultural Technology Development in Burkina Faso in Chapter 12 of Y Moses (ed) Proceedings African Agricultural Develompent Conference Technoloiy Ecology and Society California State Polytechnic Institute Pomona California 1986
29 Nagy J G H W Ohm L L Ames and L D Schaber Analysis of IITASAFGRAD Mechanical Ridge Tier International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1986
30 Nagy J G H W Ohm and S Sawadogo Burkina Faso A Case Study of the Purdue UniversitySAFGRAD Farming Systems Project forthcoming in the Florida Farming Systems Project Case Studies Series 1986
31 Ames L L A Preliminary Report on the Evaluation of New Technologies in Burkina Faso International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1986
32 Annual Report (English) 1979
33 Annual Report (English) 1980
34 Annual Report (English) 1982
35 Annual Report (English amp French) 1983
36 Annual Report (English amp French) 1984
37 Annual Report (English) 1985
38 End of Project Report 1986
85
Theses List
1 Kaylen A M Current Farming Conditions in Nedogo and Digre Upper Volta MS Thesis Department of Agricultural Economics Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana August 1982
2 Jaeger W K Agricultural Mechanization The Economics of Animal Traction in Burkina Faso Stanford University unpublished PhD thesis 1984 To be published as a book by Westview Press
3 Bukowski AS Performance of Grain Markets in Selected Areas of Burkina Faso MS Thesis Department of Agricultural Economics Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana May 1986 Utilized some of the data and research support from the FSU project in Upper Volta but was directly supported by INTSORMIL
4 Roth M An Econoimc Evaluation of Agricultural Policy in Burkina Faso West Africa A Sectoral Modeling Approach unpublished PhD dissertation Department of Agricultural Economics Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana May 1986 Utilized some of the data and research support from the FSU project in Upper Volta but was directly supported by INTSORMIL
5 Savadogo K An Analysis of the Economic and Socio-Demographic Determinants (E Household Food Consumption in Ouagaodugou Burkina Faso unpublished PhD dissertation Department of Agricultural Economics Purdvr University West Lafayette Indiana 1986
In 1979 Purdue University implemented the Farming Systems UnitSemi-Arid Food Grain Research and Development (FSUSAGRAD) Project headquartered in Ouagadougou Burkina Faso The project continued until June 30 1986
This end-of-project report covers major aspects of the farming systems research activities which took place
The body of the report is substantive in that it presents major findings of this collaborative research effort in terms of
(a) farming systems methodology in the West African Semi-Arid Tropics (WASAT)
(b) production constraints of existing WASAT farming systems
(c) technology development of increased cereal production in that region and
(d) policy implications and future avenues for research and extension
We chose to structure the end-of-project report in this fashion for a specific reason This was to make available in one place the more important and relevant methodological and empirical findings associated with acshycelerated agricultural development in that region
The administrative report for the FSUSAFGRAD Project (AFR-C-1472) is provided in the Appendices along with a list of publications generated by FSU research
Broader coverage and details of the scientific output of this activity are available in the thirty-six research reports and workshop proceedings asshysociated with the FSUSAFGRAD Project
A life-of-project fiscal report has been submitted to the Agency for International Development under separate cover
We trust that the efforts of Professors Nagy Sanders and Ohm in developing this final report will be useful to all who continue this work
D Woods Thomas Associate Dean and Director International Programs Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 47907
CEREAL TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT - WEST AFRICAN4 SEMI-ARID TROPICS A FARMING SYSTEMS PERSPECTIVE
i Foreword
I INTRODUCTION
II THE PURDUE UNIVERSITY FARMING SYSTEMS UNIT
III FARMING SYSTEMS METHODOLOGY IN THE WEST AFRICAN SEMI-ARID TROPICS A Introduction B Describing Farmers Environments Production Systems and Objectives
The Base Line Study Stage C Designing and Implementing On-Farm Trials D Evaluation of On-Farm Technology Performance E Micro vs Macro Approaches to Farming Systems F Which Agencies Should Undertake the On-Farm Testing G Conclusions
IV PRODUCTION CONSTRAINTS OF THE WASAT FARMING SYSTEMS
V TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT TO INCREASE CEREAL PRODUCTION IN THE WASAT A Introduction B Proposed Technologies for the WASAT
1 Soil FertilityWater Retention Technologies - Tied Ridges
- DiguettesDikes - Complex Chemical Fertilizers - Indigenous Rock Phosphate
- Animal Manure and Composting - Mulch - PlowingGreen Manuring
2 Labor Saving Technologies - Animal Tcaction - Mechanical Ridge Tier - Herbicides
3 Improved Varietal Research 4 Crop Associations
C Sequencing of Technologies and Farm Management Practices in the WASAT 1 Technologies for the Present Farming System 2 Technologies for Future Farming System
VI POLICY IMPLICATIONS AND FUTURE AVENUES FOP RESEARCH AND EXTENSION
VII SUMMARY
VIII APENDICES 1 Administrative Report 2 Publications List
LIST OF TABLES
Table Page
1 Present technical and economic feasibility and time frame of proposed technologies and farm management practices for the WASAT
38
2 Economic analysis of farmer-managed trials of sorghum with fertilizer and tied ridges Nedogo and Diapangou 1981 and 1984
43 - a
3 Whole farm modeling analysis of tied ridging with donkey traction Central Plateau Burkina Faso
45
4 Whole farm modeling analysis of a tied ridging fertilization 51 technology combination with donkey traction Central Plateau Burkina Faso
5 Recommendition domains and likely sequential adoption patterns of available technologies in the WASAT
57
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure Page
1 West African Sahelian and Sudanian zones 2
2 FSU research sites and climatic zones Burkina Faso 4
3 Stages of the research process 15
6 Schematic view of farming systems 17
5 Flow chart for new technology evaluation in farm trials 19
6 The IITASAFGRAD mechanical ridge tier 50
LIST OF ACRONYMS
ANOVA Analysis of Variance CIAT Centro Internacional 6e Agricultura Tropical CIMMYT Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maiz y Trigo FCFA Franc Communaut6 Financire Africaine FSR Farming Systems Research FSSP Farming Systems Support Project FSU Purdue UniversitySAFGRAD Farming Systems Unit IARC International Agricultural Research Center IBRAZ Institut Burkinabamp de Recherches Agronomiques et Zootechniques ICARDA International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas ICRISAT International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid
Tropics iFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development IFDC International Fertilizer Development Center IITA International Institute of Tropical Agriculture ILRAD International Livestock Research and Development Program INTSORMIL International SorghumMillet Program IPIA International Programs in Agriculture (Purdue University) IRAT Institut de Recherches Agronomiques Tropicales et des Cultures
Vivri~res IRRI International Rice Research Center MRT Mechanical Ridge Tier NARC National Agriculture Research Center OAU Orgacization of African Unity PCV Peace Corps Volunteer SAFGRAD Semi-Arid Food Grain Research and Development Program USAID United States Agency for International Development WASAT West African Semi-Arid Tropics
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
Food production and consumption trends in the Third World over the past two decades have shifted world attention from Asia to Sub-Saharan Africa (Paulino and Mellor 1984) The Green Revolution in Asia--the increase in rice and wheat yields brought about by improved varieties and an expanded use of fertilizer and other purchased inputs--has greatly increased Asian per capita food production (Pinstrup-Andersen and Hazell 1985) A similar Green Revolution phenomenon however has not yet taken place in sub-Saharan Africa One of the areas of most concern in Sub-Saharan Africa is the geographical region of the West African semi-arid tropics (WASAT) Current food production and population growth trends have led many to adopt a Malthusian perspective about the future of the WASAT
The countries of the WASAT include Senegal Gambia Burkina Faso the southern portions of Mauritania Mali Niger and Chad and the northern portions of Ghana Benin Ni eria and Cameroon (Norman et al 1981) Troll (1966) defines semi-ard tropics as regions where precipitation exceeds potential evapotranspiration for 2 to 7 months of the year Figure I delineates the principal climatic zones in the WASAT based on annual rainfall levels (09 probability isohyets of 1931-60 rainfall data)
The WASAT is one of the poorest regions in the world with 1984 per capita yearly incomes for countries in the area ranging between $US 80 and $US 300 (McNamara 1985) The region as a whole has balance of trade and balance of payments problems The economies depend heavily on foreign aid borrowing and worker remittances People (labor) are one of the biggest exports from the region--an estimated 25 of the labor force of Burkina Faso works in neighboring non-WASAT areas (World Bank 1981) The region exhibits a bottom-heavy age pyramid with country population growth rates ranging between 25 to 30 per ear and a fertility rate averaging 65 children per adult female The growth in per capita food production (1971shy1984) for the region as a whole is negative while levels of food imports (largely from donor agencies) have increased dramatically over the last 25 years (McNamara 1985 Paulino and Mellor 1984)
The declining food production per capita is associated with the conshytinuing droughts of the 1968-73 and 1976-80 periods (Nicholson 1982) and the most recent 1984 drought Other factors such as inadequate economic incentives for farmers and the failure to adapt and adopt new agricultural technologies have also been cited as explanations for the failure of food production to accompany population growth
(Adapted from World Bank 1985)200 o0 200
ALGERIA -200
20
MAURITANIAOE
SahLan NLMALI 3XJ50n n6038 0
uda n - ne13A v C e 0L 0
10 GUINEA-BISS1U 00 2 00 GUINEA i S h i and Sud -nia Zones
SIERRA IVORY 0 IERA LEONECOAST
0HNI -
CLIMATIC ZONES AEO1 o0O Zones Rainfall
-- 350 - 30-Sahelo-aian P Sahelo- aian NL50 - 350
Sudanian 600 -800 0Komts 200 400 600 Sudano-Guinean Above 800 K oM lers shy
200 4 00
deg deg20 0 100 o 10c0 deg 20
Figure 1 West African Sahelian and Sudanian Zones
3
Since the WASAT does nLt have the manland pressure of much of Asia and Asia has been successful in rapidly increasing agricultural production in its prime agricultural areas it is useful to look at the resource base in this region The present manland ratios in the WASAT average roughly15 persons per sq km (World Bank 1985) compared with up to 600 persons per sq km in Asia (McNamara 1985) The poorer agricultural resource base of the WASAT however cannot support the high man-land ratio of Asia (Matlon 1985) For example in the older settlement villages of the Central Plateau of Burkina Faso manland ratios are as high as 60 persons per sqkm (World Bank 1985) These high manland ratios relative to the resource base have been causing the breakdown of the traditional bush-fallow farming systems Traditionally the crop area was cultivated for 3 to 5 years and then left idle for a decade or more to restore soil fertility In many of the older settlement villages increased population has meant limited access to new land a shortening of the fallow rotation period and the culshytivation of more marginal land (Norman et al 1982 Dugue 1985) For example in the village (Figure 2)of Nedogo Burkina Faso many fields have been cultivated as long as the farmers can remember (FSUSAFGRAD 1983) Moreover almost all the crop residues are utilized for feed or building materials or else burned further exhausting the fertility of the soil Declinin7 soil fertility in the older settled regions has bei disshyrupting the cereal production systems pushing the cereals into more marshyginal areas and encouraging a substitution of millet for sorghum (Ames 1986)
During the high rainfall period of the fifties and early sixties intensive crop production was further extended into the Sahelo-Sudanian zone (World Bank 1985) With the droughts and increased desertification of the late sixties and seventies many have become concerned with the posshysible interaction of human settlement and further desertification (Nicholson 1982 World Bank 1985) While this debate has not been resolved there is no doubt that the resource base in much of the Sahelo-Sudanian zone has further deteriorated The cereals deficit problem has become increasingly serious
All three phenomena--the disappearing fallow system the failure to incorporate crop residues and the extension of crop cultivation into more marginal agricultural regions--lead to further soil detcrioration in the absence of technological intervention In overpopulated agriculturalregions such as the Central Plateau of Burkina Faso the bush fallow systemis being replaced by a permanent cultivation system characterized by verylow and stagnant cereal yields (Lang et al 1984 see Ruthenberg 1980 for other examples of this dynamics)
Not all the WASAT is overpopulated Rather many of the regions can be characterized as frontier zones For example the eastern region of Burkina Faso (ie Diapangou Figure 2) with man-land ratios of 15 persons
I
oBURKINA FASO I Principal Cities 3 350
FSU Survey Villages Dori
OuaigoyaBangasse
deg 00 1i0
Dissankuy FauF
Bdobo ogo NGourma 800bullDioulasso bulloBE -I -NIN
TOGOBanfora
GHANA CLIMATIC ZONES Zones Rainfall
IVORY COAST Sahelian NLC- 350IVRYCASlSahelo-Sudanian 350 - 600
Sudanian 600 - 800 Sudano-Guinean Above 800
(I) NLC NORTHERN LIMIT OF CULTIVATION (2) ISOHYETS INn
00
Figure 2 FSU research sites and climatic zones of Burkina Faso
5
per sq km has surplus land and follows the bush-fallow system of cultivashytion However even on the frontier as population pressure increases in the next five years a phenomenon similar to what is now taking place on the Central Plateau of Purkina Faso would be expected to occur It is becoming increasingly important to develop land substituting technologies for the overpopulated regions And although labor substituting technolshyogies are presently still very important on the frontier at the present pace of developnnt the frontier zones will confront similar problems to those in the overpopulated regions during the next decade
Given the present cereals crisis in the WASAT it is becoming critical to develop or ad~pt new agricultural technologies which will reverse the Malthusian trends In the mid-sixties before the start ofthe Green Revolution similar Malthusian statements were made about the agricultural potential of the Indian sub-continent However during the late sixties and seventies agricultural regions in Asia with irrigation or regular assured rainfall had the mosc rapid growth rates in technology diffusion ever empirically documented Although the resource endowment in the WASAT is not as great as that of the Punjab and similar Asian regions research reported here will atuempt to show that there is substantial potential for cereal technology development in the WASAT
The technology development process in the Purdue UniversitySAFGRAD Farming Systems Unit Project had two phases The first phase was the development of a methodology to identify the pressing constraints to cereal production increase and the testing out on farmers fields of technology alternatives available from the experiment station and from similar climatic regions in other countries The second stage was the continued evaluation of successful technologies over a sufficiently long time period and in sufficient detail to allow researchers a feeling of reasonable conshyfidence in their recommendations to both experiment station researchers and to the extension service and government officials involved in agricultural development The principle chapters of this report (III and V) are conshycerned with these two phases of the technology development process The basic methodological concepts potentially useful in other WASAT countries from the farming systems research in Burkina Faso are synthesized in Chapter III In the technology evaluation of Chapter V the results of other WASAT agricultural researchers are combined with those of the Purdue UniversitySAFGRAD Farming Systems program to give a more comprehensive evaluation of the present state of cereal technology development in the WASAT The conclusions synthesize the technology evaluation to draw out the implications for agricultural policy and for future extension and research
6
Footnotes
Rainfall averages have declined by 100 to 150 mm per year since the mid
1960s Updated isohyets using 1961-1985 data were not available In depth information on the countries and regions of the WASAT can be obtained from Kowal and Kassam 1978 McNamara 1985 Norman et al 1981 and World Bank 1985
At present there is some scope for migration to lower population denshysity areas with better soils and rainfall within the WASAT since health investments have been made to eradicate river blindness in some of the more fertile valleys (Sanders et al 1986) Several relocation proshygrams have already been undertakca in Burkina Faso (McMillan 1979) Relocation programs are costly and represent a short to intermediate solution for the WASAI Also people are reluctant to relocate and leave family friends and familar surroundings
CHAPTER II
THE PURDUE SAFGRAD FARMING SYSTEMS UNIT
The Purdue University Farming Systems Unit (FSU) funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) was part of the Semi-Arid Food Grain Research and Development Project (SAFGRAD) from December 1978 to June 1986 SAFGRAD is a regional research coordinating program implemented by the Coordination Office of the Scientific Technical and Research Commission of the Organization of African Unity (OAUSTRC) The SAFGRAD project works in cooperation with 28 sub-Saharan member countries with the coordination office located in Ouagadougou Burkina Faso The principal objective of the SAFGRAD project is to coordinate and strengthen programs in the semi-arid regions of sub-Saharan Africa that are involved in improving sorghum maize millet cowpea and groundnut yields
In the West African Semi-Arid Tropics (WASAT) SAFGRAD coordinates a research and pre-extension program The regional on-station component research is headquartered at the Central Experiment Station at Kamboinse in Burkina Faso and undertaken by IITA and ICRISAT Another component of SAFGRAD in the WASAT is the Accelerated Crops Production Officers (ACPO) program which conducts regional pre-extension and demonstration trials An integral part of the overall program is the farming systems unit which provides linkages between on-station research and the ACPOextension proshygrams The research and extension personnel of SAFGRAD (including the FSR unit) meet yearly to submit an annual report to a Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) The TAC reviews the research programs and submits the results and recommendations to the Consultative Committee (CC) which is a management and policy committee for SAFGRAD The results are passed on to host country research and extension institutions
Within the SAFGRAD framework farming systems research for Burkina Faso was provided by Purdue University for seven years up to June 1986 In the seventies farming systems methodology was still in its infancy Its mandate included the development of methodological guidelines that could be implemented in host country national and SAFGRAD sponsored farming systems programs The specific objectives of FSU were as follows
1 to identify the principle constraints to increased food producshytion
2 to identify technologies appropriate for farmers which could overshycome the production constraints
3 to develop and implement a multidisciplinary research method which could guide production technology and production research to directly address these production constraints
8
4 to identify the elements of that method which could be implemented in national farming systems research programs and
5 to train host country personnel to assume increasing responsibilshyity in their contribution to research
During the life of the FSU program agronomic and socio-economic research was conducted at the on-farm level in five villages (Figure 2) The pecific operational procedures and evolution of the FSU program are reported in Nagy et al 1986b The agronomic and soci-economic field campaign findings of the FSU program are presented in FSU Annual Reports and other FSU publications
In the final year of the contract the FSU program completed the transfer of its in-country taff arid program to tie national agricultural research institution of Burkina Faso (IBRAZ) FSU also worked with the IFAD supported SAFGRAD farming systems personnel aho backstop the national farming systems programs in Butkina Faso and Benin Through regional symshyposia and consultation the methodology and results were made available to other SAFOPAD countries as well Details of the program transfer and field staff training component of objective 5 are reported in the 1985 FSU Annual Report (Nagy and Ohm 1986)
CHAPTER III
FARMING SYSTEMS METHODOLOGY IN THE WEST AFRICAN SEMI-ARID TROPICS (WASAT)
Introduction
The basic concept of farming systems research is that the research system could function more efficiently if more information on the conshystraints which prevent farmers from improving their well-being was obtained at an earlier stage of the research development process than is common in the developing countries Farm-level constraints can be identified with both surveys and on-farm trials A further extension is to supplement the on-farm trials with whole-farm modeling This chapter will be concerned with all three approaches
In developed countries the two-way linkages of communication between farmers and agricultural scientists function better than in the WASAT due to higher educational levels of the farmers better agricultural informashytion systems and financial mechanisms in developed countries which reward the agricultural research establishments and individual scientists for their contributions to resolving farm-level production problems Farming systems esearch can provide an alternative communication linkage which does not require advancements in general education or major changes in the institutional orientation of national research systems
The clientele of Farming Systems Research will depend upon the instishytutional setting and the stage of development of the technology In the initial phases of the agricultural development process as in the WASAT the most important directional flow of information is to the researchers for several reasons First farming systems even in low input agriculshyture are very complex with many systems interactions Farmers have multiple objectives and constraints and these can vary in importance and evolve over time and even in response to the conditions of the production season (Norman 1982)
Agricultural scientists in developing countries often underinvest in understanding these complex systems and farmers objectives before beginshyning research Further they may not adequately respond to knowledge which is available When farmers do not adopt the technologies produced on the experiment station and recommended to them the initial reaction of agricultural scientists in developing countries is often that the problem of non-adoption is with the farmers the extension service or national economic policies rather than with the technologies themselves
Technology development requires a thorough understanding of the scienshytific concepts applied on the experiment station plus a multi-disciplinary approach to understanding the complexity of the farmers environment farmshying systems and decision-making process The most fundamental difference between the experiment station and farmers fields is the necessary shift
10
from component parts of new technologies as produced on the experiment station to systems with impor ant interactions such as are characteristic of farmers production systems
Farming Systems Research helps to overcome these differences by nashybling agricultural scientists to improve their understanding of the comshyplexity of the farmers systems and thereby become more efficient at idenshytifying and resolving the research problems involved in overcoming farmers constraints Two desired final products are a more efficient agricultural research system and an increase in mutual comprehension between farmers and researchers Another product is the facilitation of adoption of new sysshytems of agricultural technology so that these systems can be more rapidly incorporated into the testing and diffusion program of the extension servshyice
The principal stages in farming systems research can be identified by responding to the following questions
a) What do you do first to describe the farmers production systems How much description is enough
b) How do you plan and organize on-farm trials When do you do it What are the differences between experiment station and on-farm trials
c) How do you analyze and supplement the data coming out of the onshyfarm trials What are the relevant questions to be answered about new technology performance on farms
d) At some point in technology development outside factors (exogenous variables) such as economic policy or the further development of input production or distribution capacity such as a fertilizer marketing system improved credit or a seed industry may be constraining technology introduction How does FSR set up its own boundaries while still maximizing its effectiveness in providing relevant information to facilitate the production of new technologies
e) Who should do the farming systems research Presently International Agricultural Research Centers spend an estimated 10 to 15 million dollars annually on FSR (Anderson and Dillon 1985 p 1)
The following sections of the paper will attempt to address these speshycific questions on farming systems methodology Clearly there will be some biases from the experiences of the Farming Systems Unit in Burkina Faso and the otber FSR experiences of the authors These eperiences will be utilized as illustrations
11
Describing Farmers Environments Production Systems and Objectives The Baseline Study Stage
If the principal objective of tarming systems research is to improve the understanding of agricultural scientists about farm-level conditions then this data-collection or description process must begin with them They help to define the research problems and objectives of the fieldwork and to understand the particular target group of farmers Agricultural scientists need to be involved in farm-level research design in order to provide more information and to evaluate the accuracy of their hypotheses about farmer conditions and decision-making
The utilization of baseline studies for developing research priorities requires the identification and ranking of the principle conshystraints to increased output of the commodities studied This is not a simple process since there will be a strong bias from the individual disshyciplines of the researchers in the definition of the farm-level constraints Breeders will identify varietal characteristics for overcomshying specific yield constraints pathologists diseases economists will point out particular policies or markets which reduce the profitability of specific new technologies Hence a multi-disciplinary approach to the definition of constraints will be necessary from the beginning of the research design process Some investment by researchers in the tnderstandshying of other disciplines will also be necessary
Useful baseline research has included the economic quantification of production losses from various insects and diseases This information helped confirm the research strategies of resistance breeding for field beans at CIAT (Sanders 1984 Sanders and Lynam 1982) Similarly in Burkina Faso the initial anthropological descriptions of faring systems (M Saunders 1980) and the economic analysis of farmers objectives and seasonal labor constraints helped provide orientation for agricultural researchers in the farm trials (Lang et al 1984)
An important issue within this baseline stage is that it is extremely easy to overinvest in data collection and descriptive surveys Moreover much of the literature on farming systems puts an excessive emphasis on baseline data collection so that the research problem identification hyposhytheses analytical methodologies and even literature reviews are neglected The frequent consequence is the amassing of large quantities of data which are only partially analyzed Even with analysis much of the data collection traditionally undertaken at this stage of FSR has resulted in interesting descriptions of little relevance to researchers in reshydefining their research priorities
There are several methods for avoiding the pitfalls of random and largely irrelevant data collection The first is an extension of a method presently utilized by many agricultural scientists to identify for themshyselves the important constraints in farmers fields This involves their going into the field to see farm-level problems in their disciplinary
12
3 area A simple extension is to make these field trips multi-disciplinary and to involve some pre-trip discussion and mutual definition of field objectives If farm-level interviewing remains unstructured the datashyamassing problem can be avoided Multi-disciplinary collaboration is begun and can bd continued in the development of a report synthesizing the field observations Often these initial trips or sondeos have led to more formal multi-disciplinary questionnaire development and surveying in a second stage Clearly with the involvement of several disciplines the demand for data can increase exponentially
To more rapidly interest the agricultural scientists a different technique is suggested At any given time agricultural scientists genershyally have their own ideas of what will work on farmers fields These ideas can come directly from their own experiments from observations of farmers in other regions or from Vhe literature The suggestion here is to move rapidly into on-farm trials This will then give a defined frameshywork for supplementing on-farm trials with diagnostic surveys which have well-defined objectives ie to better evaluate specific socio-economic issues involved in introducing these new technologies tested on the farmshyers fields into the farmers production system
In these baseline surveys of the functioning of the farm and household systems at the beginning of an FSR project the anthropologists and sociologists have often made outstanding contributions to our understanding (M Saunders 1980 Reeves and Frankenberger 1982) When these surveys by the social scientists have been integrated with the research objectives of agricultural scientists their utility has been further increased It is recommended that a farming systems project begin with baseline surveys of farm and household conditions in each major target area preferably undershytaken by an anthropologist (also see Simmonds 1984 p 74) These baseshyline studies and a commencement of on-farm trials in the first production season are suggested as the appropriate way to begin farming systems reshysearch in the WASAT
The principal emphasis here is on moving rapidly to on-farm trials with supplementary analysis to provide understanding of the potential role of the new technologies in the whole farm system The methodology for this type of evaluation will be explained in detail in the fourth section on Evaluation As this type of on-farm testing and modeling analysis is being undertaken further diagnostic surveys are often useful to complement the principal investigation of the on-farm trials and farm modeling An exshyample in the Burkina Faso FSU program after three to five years of on-farm testing in different villages was a survey to evaluate adoption by parshyticipant and non-participant farmers of the new technologies tested
Designing and Implementing On-Farm Trials
There are two central issues in the implementation of on-farm trials First multi-disciplinary collaboratin is essential especially between agricultural scienmtists and economists Secondly the research objectives
13
of the experiment station and on-farm trials are different hence the organization design and arnalysis of the on-farm trials are different from those on the experiment station
True multi-disciplinary collaboration is not easy since each discishypline has its body of literature its journals certain statistical methods customarily dominated by its practitioners and even its philosophical attitudes about research and the process of agricultural development Moreover universities and many agricultural research institutions are organized by discipline Promotions in universities are linked to publicashytions in the high prestige journals of individual disciplines
To overcome these barriers between disciplines strong institutional support and continued personal relationships are both required There is a tendency in farming systems projects to give control of the on-farm trials to either the biological or the social scientists or to compartmentalize their efforts For example the agricultural scientists might manage the researcher-managed on-farm trials and the economists the farmer-managed trials Or the agricultural scientist might ask the economists help in interpreting data without collaborating with himher on field research planning and design
The most basic differences between agricultural scientists and econoshymists are in their treatment of data (Collinson 1981 p 442) Agriculshytural scientists are trained to be extremely careful in data generation to verify results over a number of years and to utilize variations of analyshysis of variance to analyze the significance of yield differences However policymakers generally need new technology recommendations in short time periods and farmers are more interested in the profitability and fit into their operati s of one or two new systems of production than in the idenshytification of the level of significance of the treatments and their interactions
Economists with simple modeling and synthetic estimates (judgements of agricultural scientsts) can help fill the gap between the public policymakers and the farmers demands for new technology information and the output from agricultural scientists Some knowledge of the agriculshytural sciences and some simple modeling are the necessary components of the economists contribution The primary requisite for successful interdisshyciplinary collaboration is the desire of the team to respond rapidly to real world problems of technology evaluation even if the data utilized are preliminary and some of them are synthetic Preliminary results can always be refined and improved with further experiments andor data collection and analysis
One important contribution of Farming Systems Research has been to demonstrate the strategic importance of on-farm testing of new technologies as a critical component of the agricultural research process (for an estishymate of the rate of return to this research see Martinez and Arauz 1984) The primary unit in new technology production is the experiment station
14
However once the component parts of new technologies have been tested on the experiment station they can be combined into packages and tested under a wide range of farming conditions (Figure 3) The synergistic or multishyplicative (rather than additive) impact of combining several factors of production is well kriown in the agricultural sciences The individual factors are identified and measured on the experiment station In the onshyfarm trials combinations of factors are evaluated to identify new systemsof production that are profitable and fit into farmers production systems
On the experiment station non-treatment inputs are held at fixed but generally high levels so that they do not affect the performance of the treatment input(s) Usually the potential for static (increased variance) in the response of the treatment input(s) is reduced by the high levels of utilization of other inputs Experiment station trials tend to study one or sometimes two factors in considerable detail Experiment stations are usually selected in the best agricultural regions and over time due to different cultural practices the agricultural conditions become substanshytially different from those on farmers fields (Sanders and Lynam 1982 Byerlce Collinson et al 1981)
Once the more basic experiments have been undertaken on the station and before recommendations are made farm-level testing is necessary If the technology performance depends upon soil climate insect or disease incidence the farm trials can help identify these factors and estimate the economic impact of overcoming the specific constraint at different levels of its incidence For example fertilizers will have a larger impact in low soil fertility regions and a disease resistant variety will be more impressive where the disease occurs A water retention technique such as tied ridges wouli be expected to work better in the heavier soils In sandier soils the ridges will be more rapidly destroyed by wind or water Moreover the on-farm trials provide a crude estimate of the relative importance of the specific constraints on the farmers fields during the production period evaluated
One method for analyzing these betwcen-farm differences in new techshynology puiformance in greater detail is to utilize a large number of farms for the farm-level trials Repetitions are often made by increasing the number of farms rather than includi ig repetitions on each farm site (DeDatta et al 1978 Sanders and Lynam 1982) One implication of this design is that variance within farms cannot he separated Another is that within any constrained planting zeason a larger number of farms can be included
Another way to handle the between-farm variation in technology perforshymance is to stratify the environments in which the technology is evaluated
15
Experiment Station On-Farm Trials
More Basic Research More Applied Research
Component Research Systems or Package Research
Variance from Non-Treatment Analyze Variance from Non-Factors Minimized Treatment Factors
Repetitions on Same Experiment Replications Across Farms
New Technologies Originate Hrre New Technologies Evaluated Here Primary Activity Secondary Activity
Emphasis on Feedback of Information to Researchers in the Experiment Station
Based Upon Technology Performance on Farms--Request Technology Modifications from the Experiment Station
To Extension Service for Further Testing and Dissemination
Figure 3 Stages of the research process
SOURCE Adapted from Sanders and Lynam 1982 p 99
16
Soil types rainfall regimes or even farmer characteristics can be utilshyized to define research domains However the performance of many new technologies under different farm-level conditions is often a stochastic event The incidence of diseases and insects is unknown at planting time so there is no way to define research domains for these problems If there is a large sample the data carn be stratified after the trials Since it is often difficult in practice to minimize the on-farm performance variashytions of new technologies by defining research (or recommendation) domains with homogeneous characteristics it is frequently necessary to employlarger sample sizes ie more on-farm trials The number of trials necessary will also depend upon the types of technologies evaluated
In the initial years of on-farm testing (early and mid-70s)economists and other social scientists frequently administered the trials Over time agricultural scientists have generally taken over the implemenshytation of these trials This transition has improved trial quality since agricultural scientists are trained for this activity However the failure to adequately specify the objectives of on-farm testing can lead to trials which are only replicas of experiment centtation trials
With the above detailed examination of the on-farm methodologies it is easy to forget that the origin of new technologies is the experimentstation This is the primary unit in the technology development processThe on-farm testing performs an important evaluation function in the reshysearch production process but it is secondary to the primary organ of agricultural research the experiment station Moreover the quality of the on-farm trials will depond upon the input from the agriculturalscientist In the design and the evaluation phases the interdisciplinary input especially fcom econiomists will be critical
The integration of the on-farm and station-based research and their links to diagnostic surveys of the farmers in the target regions and to the operational research utilizing the data resulting from the on-farm trials are [llustrated in Figure 4 As mentioned previously both the diagnostic surveys and the evaluation of on-farm trials have important roles and should function simultaneously The operational research for the evaluashytion of these on-farm triaLs will be considered in the next section
Evaluation of On-Farm Technology Performance
The on-farm trials combine several factors or component parts preshyviously evaluated on he experiment station into different systems or packages Isolating each factor aid its interactions in these trials freshyquently becomes unmanageable Beets (1982) cites an IRRI cropping systemexperiment with 750 possible treatment combinations However 7 the princishypal concern of the on-farm trials is to identify combinationswhich are profitable of factorsand fit into the farmers systems of produccion
17
Target group farmers of a recommendation
domain in a Vagion
Survey diagnosis of farmer priorities resource and environment problems and development opportunities
Identification ofunsolved technical problems and possible new practices and materials relevant to farmers development opportunities
On-farm adaptive research
Operational research for identification and evaluation of materials and techniques
offering potential for problemsolution and the exploitation
of opportunities
Station-based technical
On-farm testing via experiments on apparentl relevant materials and techniques under farmers conditions
Use of existing body of knowledge of materials and techniques suitable for the climate and soils of the ion
Component research usingcommodity and disciplinary
research solvingpriority technical problems
and investigating possible new materials and practices
Figure 4 Schematic view of farming systems research method (after Collinson 1982)
18
The treatments of the on-farm trials representing different systems pass through three phases of evaluation (Figure 5) The first phase is identical to the experiment-station analysis some variation of analysis of variance (ANOVA) It determines whether under farmers conditions there are significant yield differences with the new technologies as comparedwith the treatment representing traditional farmers practices
However technology needs to move beyond yield differences to be acceptable to farmers With a minimal increase in data requirements from the local environment the yield data from the treatments are converted into gross and then net revenue utilizing product prices and input costs This simple budgeting answers the second question in the flowchart of Figure 5 Is the new technology more profitable than farmers traditional practices
Mention should be made here of two frequently cited problems with simple budgeting (a) price variation over time and within the production season and (b) costing of non-traded inputs such as land and family labor Product prices can vary substantially within a year especially with the customary post-harvest price collapse and between years in regions with substantial climatic fluctuations and limited governmental role in pricestabilization Moreover input costs will depend upon government subsidies and the real input costs to the farmer will also depend upon the availability of an input such as fertilizer at the right place and the right time Questions about the appropriate prices and costs to be utilshyized in the evaluation are valid concerns which need to be dealt with in the economic analysis of new technology
Price variability and the effects of government policy and market development mean that profitability is a complicated decision which can be influenced by the farmers marketing strategies and by macro factors outshyside the farmers control Nevertheless farmers need to be able to devise some strategy to make a profit from a new technology Sensitivity analysiswhich varies the prices and costs over the relevant range can be utilized to respond to this problem The simple budgeting analysis of on-farm trials is usually a mean or median estimate The variation in yield pershyformance and prices received between farms is a useful complement to this measure
Some of the relevant inputs that neeJ to be costed for budgetinganalysis may not have a market price In the WASAT family labor duringcertain periods for performing specific cultural operations such as the first weeding has a very high implicit value and may even be constrainingcertain types of output expansion Mathematical programming models take into account the implicit value of the inputs and put a cost on them (shadow price) whereas budgeting treatments make some arbitrary assumpshytions about the labor market Land rental depreciation of the capitalinput and management costs are also difficult to estimate and are
19
Trial New farm results trials
(1)
Are there Yes significant Increases No
Infarm yields with the new technologytech~(noloy
(2) farms be
Ysmore
Is thenwtechnology
profitable than
farmers practices~(multiple
Noaffecting
stratified bycharacteristics
the successful
performance of the newregres-
Yes
sion cluster analysis)
(3)
Yes new technology N Newfit into the No [experiments
farmers production system(programming marketing)
extension service Analysis and diagnosisL
for further testing feedback for andor technology redesign
extension
FLgure 5 Flow Chart for New Technology Evaluation in Farin Trials
Source Sanders and Lynam 1982 p 100
In any of the three stages of evaluation a new technology treatment may not pass the criteria based upon mean values Then astratification of farms is attempted upon an a priori basis For example the performance of a fertilizer technology would beInfluenced by the soil types Ifthere were two types of soils and there was a return to fertilization on one and not the other thenstratification into these two groups would be undertaken For the subgroup of farms where the fertilizer technology waseffective the three stages of evaluation would commence again The subgroup where fertilization was not effective would raiseresearch questions for analysis and diagnosis as Indicated in the above flowchart
20
often omitted in the simple or partial budgeting In spite of the difshyficulties of costing some inputs and the price variation profitability comparisons with sensitivity analysis give substantially more information than yield comparisons
Nevertheless even profitability is not a sufficient criteria for farmer acceptance A new system may be profitable but may require more labor at a peak period than the farmer can release from his other operashytions or the new activity may have much higher capital requirements than the farmer can obtain The third question (Figure 5) is whether the techshynology fits into the farmers production system Whereas simple budgeting can indicate that one activity is more profitable than another mathematishycal programming takes into account all other present and potentialactivities and the available on-farm and off-farm resources Utilizing this technique and the above information an estimate of the extent of potential adoption of a new technology on a representative farm can be made Moreover the farm-level constraints to the further adnption of more profitable nctivities can be identified Clearly the value of this modelshying will depend upon the researchers understanding of the farming systpmand his ability to simplify the model to the essential elements
These mathematical programming whole-farm modeling techniques have been operationalized at the farm level for approximately twenty years so their practical value in assisting public and farmer decision-making in developed countries has been repeatedly demonstrated (Doster et al 1981 McCarl 1982) One difficulty in the implementation of this technique in developing countries has been the computer requirement however the rapid diffusion of micro computers to the developing countries is resolving this problem even in the WASAT Nevertheless there is a necessary time investshyment involved in training the technicians economists and agricultural scientists to implement the se models and to interpret the results
Mathematical programming forces researchers to focus their data colshylection on the systems problems of production in a whole-farm context (forreviews and applications see Anderson et al 1985 Ghodake and Hardakef 1981 Roth et al 1986) Simple technical coefficients representing the relationships between inputs and outputs and the resources available to the farmer are the relevant data sets for evaluation of profitability and the fit of the new technologies into the farmers systems of productionAdjustments in the modeling can be made for more complicated farmer beshyhaviors than profit maximization Risk avoidance can be explicitlyincluded in the analysis with programming Other constraints imposed byeconomic and technical factors can frequently be included
Another step in technology evaluation could be the analysis of the intra- and inter-household effects (see McKee 1984 Nagy Ohm and Sawadogo 1986) There has been much concern recently with the role of women in farm production and consumption analysis more specific considerashytion of their roles in land use investment and consumption decisions are warranted Moreover specific technologies could have equity effects on
21
different types o6 farms and policymakers are often concerned with these potential outcomes
Many other considerations could also be raised such as environmental concerns or the cultural trauma often associated with economic or institushytional change However the emphasis of this paper is responding to the three questions in the flow diagram of Figure 5 Positive answers to these questions have been associated with farmer adoption of new technologies in both Colombia (Sanders and Lynam 1982 p 104) and Burkina Faso (Sanders et al 1985 pp 24-28) thus providing support for the evaluation criteria presented here These evaluation criteria as reflected in the three questions of Figure 5 appear to be logical simple and powerful for undertaking farm-level evaluation of new technologies
Micro vs Macro Approaches to Farming Systems Research
The farming system fits into and is affected by many larger systems Agricultural policy the availability of inputs and the functioning of the product markets all affect farm-level decisions about new technologies and farm-level planning for the development of new technologies
The most conservative approach in on-farm technology development is to assume that all these systems are not evolving and to attempt to develop new farming systems for the present levels of development in the other systems In the WASAT this orientation would precipitate a search for minimum input cost systems such as
a) new varieties used without chemical inputs such as inorganic fertilizer
b) higher densities c) different planting dates d) different rotations e) more systematic use of multiple cropping f) more utilization of on-farm inputs such as mulch and manure
These types of marginal changes are attempts to obtain small yield increments utilizing either available resources on the farm or an input such as a new variety which requires a minimal cash expenditure Oneshyinput changes of available resources such as planting dates and rotations are easy for farmers to implement and observe and many farmers carry on small experiments of this type The observation that farmers are not utilizing these adjustments appears to be good evidence that there are technical reasons for them not to utilize them G~ferally the yield effects of the small adjustments ate either very small or under certain natural condit ns they precipitate other problems irn the cropping system For example in Colombia higher field bean densities significantly inshycreased disease incidence even with spraying (CIAT 1979 p 92)
In the last decade the French international agricultural research institute (IRAT) has been joined by three other institutes (CIMMYT
22
ICRISAT and IITA) in the WASAT Their principal research activity has been the development of new food crop varieties especially cereals Yet few cereal varieties have been successful enough to displace local cultivars Matlon (1985) estimated that the new cereal varieties presently occupy less than 5 of the WASAT crop area In our view new varieties unaccompanied by other inputs belong in this group of marginal changes which have had little impact Why Much of the WASAT is characterized by inadequate and irregular rainfall and low fertility soils These are difficult agricultural conditions for one-inpit changes Therefore it appears that WASAT farmers will neei to itilize higher levels oflyurchased inputs and to take more risks in order t) increase their incomes
Presently the level of purchased input utilization in the WASAT especially chemical inputs is extremely low The eight Sahelian countries have the lowest chemical fertilizer consumption in the world at less than 3 kgha on crops Animal traction is still in the introductory stage at less than 15 of the farmers in the WASAr (Matlon 1985) Moreover only a smail portion of the cereals are marketed (less than 10 in FSU sample villages on the Central Plateau in Burkina Faso) Only 3 of the cropland in the eight Sahelian countries is irrigated (Matlon 1983) With these low levels of input use and infrastructure it does not appear to be approshypriate to develop new technologies for high levels of input use However it is important to make improvements in the marketing systems so that modshyerate input levels can be utilized and there will be increased marketing of the cereals
Marginal changes such as the minimal input utilization changes disshycussed previously are not expected to be sufficient to interest farmers or to lead to sustained yield increases Moderate input levels including chemical inputs are expected to be necessary to obtain significant yield increases which fit economically into the farmers production systems (see Chapter V for specific details on chemical fertilizer) Hence as new technologies are being developed and implemented over time input and proshyduct marketing institutions must also evolve The development of these markets may require governmental support and further research The effishyciency of the para-statal product marketing agencies and the role of prishyvate and public institutions in input markets are two primary issues of concern in the present agricultural development literature on Sub-Saharan Africa
What role should FSR projects have in influencing agricultural policy and other macro issues Historically there has been an urban bias in agricultural policies in most WASAT countries To keep food prices low for urban consumers WASAT governments have frequently intervened via parashystatal marketing organizations To compensate farmers for the low product prices these same governments often have provided input subsidies to farmshyers Presently the World Bank and US AID hTje been pressuring WASAT governments to eliminate these input subsidies At least in the short run this will reduce the profitability of agriculture discourage investshyment in agriculture and delay technology adoption Part of the evaluation
23
of new technologies by the FSR program should include some sensitivity analysis to estimate the farm-level effects of various agricultural polishycies including the elimination of input subsidies
In the recent summarv of FSR for the World Bank (Simmonds 1984) a distinction was drawn betweei modifications to present farming systems and entirely new systems of production Improved agronomy with moderate levels of inputs and ultimately introducing new varieties for these improved systems would be in the first category (and see Chapter V for concrete examples) However many of the poorer more marginal environments in the WASAT ultimately will need to gradually withdraw from crop production and move into grazing systems or forestry Crop farming in the WASAT migrated further north after the high rainfall period of the fifties As yield increases are attained in those regions of rainfed aiculture with more potential and in the river valleys and irrigated areas some present crop areas can be returned to more extensive agricultural systems Farming systems research will need to make some decisions about the regions with the most agricultural potential For those truly marginal regions more comprehensive systems changes may be necessary than are customarily evaluated in farming systems research
r-tional policy factors and national agricultural development planshyning cannot be ignored in FSR Many of these macro factors and evolving changes need to be explicitly incorporated into the analysis of which technologies and regions are appropriate for evaluation Nevertheless it is recommended that modeling concentrate on the farm level Without much better micro data and analysis than is presently available in most developshying countries extending farm models to sector analysis seems to be only a training device for economists rather than a useful exercise to enlighten agricultural development planners As the micro-modeling foundation is improved in the next five to ten years the agricultural sector models will be able to give a more useful input into agricultural policy formulation in the WASAT countries
Which agencies should undertake the on-farm testing
FSR presently takes five to ten percent of the budgets of several IARCs (Simmonds 1984 pp 67 68) and the IARCs have generally taken a leadership role in field application of on-farm testing The long-run frequently stated objective of the IARCs is to turn this activity over to the national agricultural research systems (NARC) The rationale is that the on-farm trials give very location-specific results The IARCs can develop methodologies and demonstrate the utilization of new research activities to the NARCs but ultimately larger numbers of on-farm trials in many regions will need to be undertaken in developing countries to evaluate the diverse technologies being produced in the IARCs and NARCs Not only does the scale of this testing make it infeasible for the IARCs to undertake all of it themselves but also much of the testing will be outside the commodity mandates of the individual IARCs
24
The institutional placement of on-farm testing depends upon the relative importance of the two clienteles for the products of the research at a given stage of technology development These two potential clienteles are the extension seryjce and the agricultural researchers On-farm trials which are successful give important information to the extension service and to those public officials involved with agricultural policy On-farm trials which are not successful give feedback on farm-level problems with the technologies to researchers at the experiment stations in both the national and international centers
If the primary emphasis of the on-farm trials needs to be on feedshyback then there are two problems with the present location of most farming systems research in the IARCs First several of the centers put the principal emphasis of their on-farm trials on providing information for the NARCs and the extension services (Simmonds 1985 pp 92-97) Presently there is less concern with feedback from the on-farm trials to IARC reshysearchers on the relevance and problems of the technologies they are developing Organizationally it appears to be very difficult for a divishysion of one institution to ierve for very long as an effective critic of its own activities
Secondly most of the IARCs Pre crop-breeding institutions including CIMMYT IRRI CIAT ICRISAT ICARDA and IITA Two of these centers CIMMYT and IRRI have been very successful in producing new varieties for those environments with adequate assured water availability and moderate to high levels of input utilization However in most of the harsher environments including the WASAT where these conditions are not met improvements in agronomy to attain moderate purchased input levels may need to precede the introduction of new varieties On-farm testing undertaken or financed by the IARCs tends to concentrate on the varietal effect since that is their mandate In these harsher environments institutions other than the IARCs (or even the NARCs which receive IARC assistance of new germ plasm) may need to do the on-farm testing
This on-farm testing in harsher climatic regions such as the WASAT would concentrate first on identifying agronomic improvements ie the combination of measures to improve water retention and soil fertility At a later stage the IARCs and NARCs could develop new varieties for these improved (but not high input) production systems The main points here are that at least in the WASAT stage of agricultural development the princishypal focus of on-farm testing will need to be on feedback to the research station and the principal focus of research on agronomic improvements
On-farm testing can be considered either as the last stage of the agricultural research process befcre passing the innovation on to the Extension Service or the first stage of the Extension process before demonstration trials and active diffusion measures Clearly there needs to be interaction between the NARC and the Extension Service consisting of the regular exchange of information and even planning of the on-farm trials If there is sufficient exchange of information and collaboration
25
in on-farm trial design the institutional location of these trialswill be less important
In summary on-farm trials will need to be undertaken by most agencies involved in agricultural experimentation in the WASAT Communication barriErs are sufficiently large between scientists and farmers that this type of intermediate activity is expected to be necessary for several decades since the IARCs NARCs and other agencies apparently need this source of feedback on the performance of their technologies Since we have been stressing the importance of feedback all through this chapter we argue that the on-farm trials should be located in the research rather than the extension entity so that feedback results are more readily acceptable at the experiment station
As on-farm trials move into the NARCs and are financed by their own internal financial resources lower ccst methods for conducting on-farm trials must be sought These trials tend to be very intensive in their use of highly qualified scientific manpower for planning and evaluation Their execution requires good logistic support and training for a large number of field workers It would appear that in the WASAT external financing and external scientific manpower will be necessary for some time to continue high levels of on-farm testing
Conclusions
Defining farmers constraints to increasing agricultural production is a complicated task best illustrated by example In the conclusions to this report (Chapter VI) we return to this problem to illustrate the conshytribution of the Purdue farming systems project to constraint identification in the WASAT Meanwhile the survey process can be divided into an initial or baseline study which describes the farmers production and household systems and supplementary or diagnostic surveys which invesshytigate particular research areas as they arise For the baseline study the in-depth village-household production and consumption analyses freshyquently undertaken by anthropologists and sociologists seem especially relevant to an understanding of the farming systems in the areas specifishycally targeted for further research activity during the on-farm stage of FSR Supplementary diagnostic 3urveys can then be undertaken in response to specific objectives of th farm-level work especially the on-farm testing of new technclogies These will often be within the disciplinary area of agricultural economists In the modeling stage of the evaluation process there will frequently be a need for supplementary farm business or household information
One primary recommendation here is that the on-farm testing phase of the FSR begin in the first production season Agricultural scientists will generally have a series of recommendations of component parts for farm testing Putting these individual factors together into technology packages and testing them under farmers conditions will help to further develop their understanding of farmers objectives and systems The
26
agricultural scientists will generally have much more interest in field experiments than in the diagnostic surveys In this initial stage of onshyfarm testing the principal direction of information flow will be feedback to the researchers as the packages are expected to have either technical or economic prulblems impeding their acceptance by farmers
Multi-disciplinary collaboration especially between the agricultural scientists and economists is essential for the on-farm testing Agriculshytural scientists know well the mechanics of the testing process Econoshymists understand the farmers objectives Both need to collaborate to understand the interactions and complexities of farmers systems of proshyduction There should be collaboration in research design to avoid replishycating experiment station trials and to obtain the necessary data for economic analysis
On the farm the treatments are generally different systems of production rather than individual factors The analysis proceeds from a statistical analysis of the significance of yield differences to economic concerns with profitability and the fit into the farmers systems of proshyduction The comparison between treatments analyzes the potential benefits to the farmers from new technology adoption since the control is a proxy for the farmers system of production The simplest economic analysis is the evaluation of profitability using partial budgets However this type of analysis is not as simple as it appears because of price variation and the difficulty of attiibutinrg prices to some production factors Generally an attempt is made to overcome these budgeting problems with sensitivity analysis
The final step in the evaluation is to consider the potential fit of the activity irto the farmers systems of production with mathematical proshygramming This whole f=crm analysis simulates the farmers decision-making process by including information on all present and potential activities using the data on on-farm and off-farm resource availabilities New sysshytems of production that pass through all three stages of this evaluation are expected to be adopted by farmers There is some adoption evidence from both Colombia and Burkina Faso supporting the above assertion
In the harsh envirarunent of the WASAT given the very low utilization of purchased inputs at present marginal agronomic changes such as density timing or even varietal change are expected to have little or even negashytive impact Larger systems changes involving technologies which simultaneously augment water conservation and soil fertility are hypothesized as necessary in order to raise yields sufficiently so that these new systems not only yield more than farmers practices on their own fields but also are profitable and fit into farmers production systems
National economic and agricultural policies can have a large impact on technology evaluation and even the planning of FSR Policymakers need to be concerned with creating an environment in which farmers can make money from adopting new technologies In the short run in the WASAT the
27
elimination of input subsidies especially if ceilings are retained for product prices will make it more difficult for farmers to profit from new technology adoption By evaluating the impact of different agricultural and economic policies on the farm-level profitability and potential adopshytion of new technologies the FSR program may be able to help influence governmental policy formation
Another impact of national policy is on agricultural development planning Frequently FSR programs are designed for marginal agricultural areas Alternatives to developing technologies for these regions may be public health investments in river valleys and yield-improving strategies in the dryland regions with better agricultural resources If yields can be sufficiently improved for the higher resource regions some shifting into livestock or even forestry may be appropriate land-use decision for the more marginal agricultural areas For these types of land-use changes government would need to finance the human resettlement costs Change in agricultural activities of this magnitude are not generally included in FSR Hence Simmonds (1984 p 121) developed a new term for it New Farming Systems Develonment (NFSD)
In the WASAT a prerequisite to new variety development appears to be the simultaneous utilization of moderate input levels to improve water retention and soil fertility Once these agronomic improvements are in place new variety introduction is expected to have more potential for sucshycess than at the present time Some of the on-farm trials in the WASAT may need to be underjgken by agencies whose principal activity is not new variety development
The on-farm testing can be either the final step in the research proshycess of the NARC IARC or other research institution or the fi t step in the Extension Service before demonstration trials or other disL mination activities The institutional location should depend upon whether the prishymary product is feedback on technology improvement to experiment station researchers or feedforward of technologies to be disseminated by the Extension Service Since the process of feedback to researchers is conshysidered to be the most important objective of on-farm testing in the early stages of agricultural technology development in the WASAT our institushytional preference for the location of these trials is with the national agricultural research centers (NARCs) rather than the national extension service The scientists in the on-farm trials will know how to convince the scientists on the experiment station of the validity of their results Some of them may even fulfill algual role working on both the experiment station and the on-farm trials As more technology is validated in the on-farm trials and can move on to the Extension Service the returns to investments in the institutional ties between the NARCs and the Extension Service will be increased
28
FOOTNOTES
This type of infrmation flow is customarily referred to as feedback
Farming Systems and other research programs also attempt to provideinformation on new technologies to farmers and extension agents Anyagricultural research program ult imately needs to have an impact on the well-being of farmers in order to survive Since the economic imporshytance of this directional flow of information to farmers is obvious we consider it to be more importlant to stress here the importance of the feedback to researchers so that they are more effective in doing their job ie producing new technologies
2 Dillon (1976 pp 6-7) contrasts philosophic differences of scientific
investigation into two approaches Reduc t ionism implied reducingphenomena to their more basic (and hopefully independent) parts analyzshying these parts as independent entities to explain their behavior and then aggregating these explanations as an explanation of the phenomenon under study Reductionism abetted and fostered the proliferation of specialized deafness and tunnel vision in form of independentthe scienshytific disciplines
Since the fifties reductionism has been increasingly seen as an inadequate basis for science to either understand or to manipulate and control its environment An alternative approach is the systems or holistic approach This is a multi-disciplinary approach in which explanation then proceeds in terms of the role or function of the part in the Larger system(s)
Clearly heshe will be exposed to all the other types of constraints but disciplinary blinders often exist especially for those involved in their own research programs
4 A recent international agricultural research center meeting for the planniig of on-farm trials in Africa concluded that the initial descripshytion and diagnostic activity of the FSR should be rapidly implemented so that a crop season for experimentation is not lost (unpublished summaryof meeting notes ILRAD Oct 1984) Diagnosticsurvey activities and farm-level experimentation can continue simultaneously In fact the farm-level experimentation will require additional diagnosticsurvey activities to evaluate the Economic potential of the new technology
The diagnostic surveys of economists have not been nearly as useful for a comprehensive understanding of the farming and household systems as those of the anthropologists Howev-r the utility of the economist on multi-disciplinary teams to undertake and evaluate on-farm trials has been repeatedly demonstrated and is now widely if not universally acshycepted (Simmonds 1984 pp 24 71-75 125) The other social scienshytists have not yet demonstrated their capacity to work on these types of teams They appear to be in the position of defining their role a position similar to that of the economists about a decade earlier
29
6 Generally soil fertility is higher on the experiment station and the
incidence of anddiseases insects is greater than on the surrounding farms due to the repeated intensive cultivation of the same crops Howshyever on the experiment station the high levels of non-treatment inputs such as agricultural chemicals can reduce the levels of insects disshyeases and weeds to levels even lower than on the farmers fields For farmers these levels of chemical control are often not profitable
Occasionally the impact of one or two components will be estimated as with fertilization and tied ridges (a water-conservation technique) alone and in combination in the Burkina Faso FSU program
8 If the weeding is not done opportunely there can often be a yield
decline Moreover all farms in a given region will be performing these types of operations at approximately the same time Hence it will be very difficult for farmers to hire temporary labor away from their famshyily operations So the implicit value or productivity of the family labor becomes very high in these particular tasks at certain critical times
9 A more comprehensive agricultural policy analysis would include the macro effect of new technology introduction on prices as is done in agriculture sector models But because so many other structural changes are occurring at the same time this price effect is not considered to be very important at least in the initial stages of technology development
10 Those advocating these types of planting density date or other culshy
tural system change generally are expecting yield increases of only 10 to 20 This type of yield increase is very difficult for the farmer to see and could easily disappear as on-farm trials change from researcher to farmer management New agronomic system changes are expected to take time for farmers to master if a series of component part changes are implied andor timeliness of the relevant operations is also important Hence the yield differences of these minimal changes even if they truly exist will often disappear in the learning-by-doing effect
11 Once farmers are utilizing moderate purchased input levels it will be
very important to systematically evaluate the im-pact of these marginal changes especially new varieties and more intensive cropping systems
12 By removing all input subsidies and other price distortions or intervenshy
tions governments and international agencies can calculate the real resource cost of various alternative policies and ascertain their comshyparative advantage in international production This analysis assumes that the re are no differences between private and public benefits or between private and social costs Hence there are no externalities in the system
30
Removing these price and cost distortions will facilitate economic calculations and in the long run welfare gains are expected In the short run the elimination of input subsidies is expected to sharply slow down the agricultural developmenc process and to put upward presshysure on agricultural product prices and the demand for agricultural import substitutes Developed country exporters of agricultural proshyducts would be the principal beneficiaries of higher agricultural import levels in the developing countries
13 In the river valleys and irrigated regions human health constraints may be the principal factor limiting agricultural development River blindshyness has been a serious problem in many of the Burkina Faso river valshyleys An erradiation program has now at least temporarily eliminated this problem In the irrigation projects the widespread incidence of bilharzia substantially reduces labor productivity
14 By successful we mean passing the three evaluation criteria recommended
in Figure 5 Clearly agricultural scientists will also be interested in those technologies being passed on to the Extension Service for diffusion We are stressing here their interest in feedback in order to resolve those problems in their technologies which came to their attenshytion because of the results of the on-farm trials
15 We would expect that those agencies principally concerned with varietal
development would emphasize varietal testing in their on-farm trials The on-farm trials are important activities for institutions primarily concerned with breeding Nevertheless a third party such as a univershysity may be necessary in order to carry out the farm trials without preconceived notions which would emphasize certain varieties or other types of technology
16 The differences are so great between the experiment station and the
farm-level definitions of constraints and relevant research problems that one of the field agronomists from this project even proposed that all agricultural scientists working on the experiment stations in the WASAT should have some involvement with on-farm trials
CHAPTER IV
PRODUCTION CONSTRAINTS OF THE WASAT FARMING SYSTEMS
The WASAT is not as well endowed with a climate or soil resource base as most of the populated areas of the world This chapter elaborates on the major physical and resource endowment constraints of the WASAT and describes cropping patterns farmers goals and objectives and modern input use
Climate
The WASAT region is a transition zone betwien the northern desert and the humid tropics of the south There are three distinct seasons warm and dry from November to March hot and dry during March through May and hot and wet from May to October Harmattan conditions (hot dry dustshyladen winds) exist during the November to March period
Rainfall in the May to October agricultural season over the entire WASAT ranges from 200 mm in the north to 1300 mm in the south with potenshytial evapotranspiration ranging between 2200 mm in the north to 1600 mm in the south (Nicou and Charreau 1985) Since the mid-sixties annual rainshyfall has averaged 100 to 150 mm below the long-term average within each isohyet (Dancette 1977) Thus the isohyet levels delineating the climatic zones in Figure 1 would be at lower levels if more recent rainfall data were used
Rainfall is extremely variable over time and over space Nicholson (1982) states that in normal rainfall years 40 to 50 of individual weather stations experience below-normal rainfall Rainfall vaiiabiltty at individual stations ranges from 15 of the long-term average in the south to 50 in the north (Nicholson 1982) Also the number of below-normal years tend to exceed the number of wet years The long-term average rainshyfall is inflated by a few extremely wet years (Nicholson 1982) The area also has a long history of intermittent droughts and wet spells
Soil Fertility and Water Retention
Soils in the WASAT are predominantly sandy red alfisols low in organic matter and exchangeable cations with a soil texture high in sand (60-95) anO low in silt and clay content (Matlon 1985 Nicou and Charreau 1985) The soils tend to be deficient in phosphorous and nitroshygen Long fallow periods can restore soil fertility but phosphorous and nitrogen deficiency symptoms have been observed shortly after the land is put into cultivation (IFDC 1985) The phosphorous sorption capacity of WASAT soils vary widely but is generally low decreasing the agronomiceffectiveness of phosphate fertilizers (IFDC 1985) Nitrogen can be quickly exhausted in these fragile poorly buffered soils (IFDC 1985) The soils contain only weak aggregates and in many regions the soil surface
32
dries after a rain and forms a crust which restrict water infiltration and aeration (Kowal and Kassam 1978) These soil properties combined with high intensity rainfall lead to water retention and erosion problems In the dry season the soils harden making pre-plant cultivation difficult and almost impossible by traditional methods until there is a major rain (Kowal and Kassam 1978)
The quality of the land in terms of fertility and organic matter conshytent varies greatly in tarmers fields Land quality and soil water retenshytion are highly correlated with topography and distance from the compound area around the living quarters The quality and water retention ability of the soil deteriorates as one moves farther up the toposequence and away from the compound area thus requiring different cropping and management strategies by the farmer (Stoop et al 1982)
Although more productive vertisols and hydromorphic soils are found along river valleys the presence of Onchoceriasis (river blindness) in many of the river valleys has made them uninhabitable in the past
Labor Availability
Labor shortages exist in the critical planting and weeding periods (FSUSAFGRAD 1983) Planting of millet and sorghum begins with the first significant rains in May or June This is followed by rice groundnut and maize planting in combination with the sorghum and millet first weeding activities Depending on the level and distribution of rainfall fields may require resowing transplanting andor thinning Usually a second and at times a third weeding will follow Most of the plantingfirst weeding period occurs over a six-week time period with the household supshyplying the labor
When farmers were asked why they did not hire more labor for first weeding their reply was Because there is no one to hire then everyone is busy with their own weeding (FSUSAFCRAD 1983) Households do not genershyally hire labor from other households because cash and food reserves at this time of year are at their lowest and not sufficient to pay laborers a wage rate (or its equiyalent in food) equal to the opportunity cost of working their own land Also few laborers are in the labor market at this time because households have control of their family labor and utilize it for their own production needs (Kowal amp Kassam 1978)
Cropping Patterns
Cereal production is the dominant agricultural activity in the WASAT (Kowal and Kassam 1978) Regional cropping patterns in the WASAT differ-shythe most notable difference being the increasing dominance of millet over sorghum maize and root crops as soil fertility and rainfall decrease from south to north About 80 of the cropped area in the WASAT is intershycropped--cerealcereal and cereallegume are the most common (Fussell and Serafini 1985 Sawadogo et al 1985) Cowpeas are usually intercropped
33
with millet or sorghum at low densities of 1000 to 8000 plants per hectare The main cash crops in the south include cotton groundnuts and bambara nuts Small amounts of rice are grown in the bottom lands and irrigated areas
At the farm level land quality the water retention ability of the soil and labor availability are the dominant factors in farmers cropping decisions (Lang et al 1983) The staple crops of maize sorghum and millet receive the highest priority of land and labor resources Drought tolerance of the crops are matched with soil fertility and toposequence Maize which is less tolerant to drought and low soil fertility than either sorghum or millet is planted near the villagle compound on the more-fertile compound field This field ranging in size from 1 to 2 ha is used as a dump for night soil animal manure stubble and other organic material Sorghum is planted on the lower areas where there is slightly more water accumulation and where the soils are more fertile than the poorer soils further up the toposequence (Stoop et al 1982) The more abundant but poorer land is planted to millet which has the most tolerance to drought and low soil fertility Farmers say that in the worst rainfall years some millet can always be harvested
Millet and sorghum can be found growing in the next higher soil fershytility gradient than is dictated by their drought tolerance ability but maize and sorghum are rarely grown on a lower soil fertility gradient Farmers say that white sorghum is preferred because it stores twice as long as millet however more sorghum is not sown because of limited good qualshyity land and because sorghum is more vulnerable to parasites such as striga Maize and sorghum planting is thus constrained by the availability of high quality land whereas the millet area is constrained by the labor supply in the plantingfirst weeding period
In the old settlement areas cereal yields are declining in response to lower soil fertility caused by the decrease in the fallow period and lower average rainfall over the last decade (Lang et al 1984) As the soil fertility declines sorghum is being replaced by millet which yields better on the poorer soils Farmers in the village of Nedogo say that much more sorghum was planted in the village when they were young than is planted now (Ames 1986)
Farmer Goals and Objectives
Norman (1982) states that the most important differences among farming systems come from the constraints peculiar to the region and not from difshyferences in farmer aspirations (which include higher incomes effort reducshytion and risk avoidance) Farmers in older settlement areas have conshystraints and endowments which differ from those of farmers in frontier villages Farmers in the older settlement areas of Burkina where access to land is limited and soil fertility low indicated uniformly that their only goal was subsistence (FSUSAFGRAD 1983) This means harvesting enough sorghum and millet in November to feed their families until the beginning
34
of the August maize harvest that provides food during the hungry period-shythe period between ending cereal stocks and the new harvest (FSUSAFGRAD 1983) When asked to specify other goals and objectives the first priorshyity was the payment of a head tax and if resources remained meetingurgent needs which were listed as medical Other priorities were to reward the family with clothes for their work during the cropping season and to greet their in-laws or arrange marriages (FSUSAFGTAD 1983)
On the frontier where access to fallow land is notl limited half of the farmers gave subsistence oriented responses that were similar to the responses given in the older settlement areas However half of the farmshyers responded that We were once concerned only with survival but now we also think of accumulating wealth When asked What is wealth they replied cattle (FSUSAFGRAD 1983)
The survey results indicated that although farmers in the WASAT in general are subsistence oriented the goals and objectives of farmers difshyfer given different constraints This is evidenced by the total subsisshytence orientation of the sample of farmers in the old settlement villages versus the orientation of those farmers in the frontier village who indishycated wealth accumulation as one of their main goals Higher soil fertilshyity and access to land at the frontier has permitted farmers to look beyond subsistence goals This appears to demonstrate that if through technologshyical introduction some of the constraints to increasing yield in the WASAT can be alleviated the aspirations of farmers will allow technology adopshytion to occur (at some level of profit effort and risk)
Modern Input Use
Except for tuie higher rainfall regions of the Sudano-Guinean region and some river valleys credit and modern inputs such as fertilizer pestishycides herbicides and improved varieties are not widely used in the WASAT Even in these regions of higher rainfall purchased input utilization is concentrated on the export crops cotton and groundnuts FAO fertilizer statistics indicate that NPK use in eight Sahelian countries averaged less than 3 kgha as compared to 73 kgha in Asia (Matlon 1985) Less than 15 of farmers use animal traction in the WASAT (Matlon and Spencer 1985) Animal traction is used for shallow land preparation plowing and shallow weeding but utilization rates are low and farmers seldom are equipped to do more than one mechanized operation (Jaeger 1985)
Neither input nor product marketing infrastructure nor a research and extension service similar to that developed for cash crops in the WASAT pre-independence era (pre-1960) was ever developed for food crops In the Colonial period food requirements were met by the subsistence-oriented agricultural system There was little export demand for food crops such as sorghum and millet (World Bank 1985) Since the late 1960s however rapid population growth and lower food crop yields due to lower rainfall levels and declining soil fertility have substantially increased food crop
35
demand to the point where food security is not assured in most regions of the WASAT Expanding cereal imports have accompanied this trend
Even with the population pressure and increased food demand since independence an input and product marketing infrastructure for food crops has not developed Poor fertility 3oils erratic rainfall distribution and low soil water retention have led to highly variable between-year yield responses to many land-substituting inputs For example the response of fertilizer is highly dependent upon the availability of sufficient water at several critical periods Thus fertilizer utilization can be very risky Similarly iroved varieties have not dcne well under traditional manageshyment conditions (Matlon 1985)
Labor-saving animal traction technology is not widely used in the WASAT in spite of potentially high ratc of return Present internal rates of return of 10 in old settlement areas (Nedogo) and 20 to 30 at the frontier (Diapangou) have been estimated but higher rates of return could be achieved with higher utilization rates principally through expansion of the number of mechanized agricultural operations (Jaeger 1985) Most animal traction farms observed in Burkina Faso mechanized either the land preparation or the cultivation operations but not both Problems of obtaining high utilization rates stein from small size farms inapproprishyate andor incomplete set of implements poor animal health and nucrition and poor management (Jaeger and Sanders 1985) Higher utilization rates and the full benefit of mechanization are not obtained by first-time animal traction users because learning curves can be as long as five years (Jaeger and Sanders 1985) Few animal traction extension programs exist which train farmers and draft animals and thus facilitate animal traction usage
In summary low soil fertility and low soil water retention low variable and unpredictable rainfall in combination with a high evapotransshypiration rate labor shortages in the critical planting and weeding periods and the limited access to land in old settlement areas are the major physical and resource endowment constraints to increased cereal yields in most of the WASAT (Matlon 1985 Nagy et al 1985 Lang et al 1984) The physical environment makes new technology adoption in the WASAT risky The national research institutions extension and input and product marketing infrastructures to support new technology adoption and dissemination are at a low level Thus farming systems on the frontier continue to be bush-fallow systems that rely on available land and family labor inputs with little utilization of purchased inputs Farming systems in the older settled area have been shifting to more millet production and yields have declined and stabilized at low levels
Despite the current situation in the WASAT recent research findings suggest that a Malthusian perspective can be iverted Several on-farm evaluated technologies have been shown to be both agronomically and economshyically feasible in increasing cereal production and others have promise for the future A review of the proposed technologies and farm management practices for the WASAT is the subject of the next chapter
36
Footnotes
Whole farm modeling results indicate opportunity costs of labor in the
last two weeks of the plantingfirst weeding period to be 365 and 181 FGFAhr respectively for manual tillage farmers which is in contrast to the wage rate of 30 to 50 FCFAhr (Roth et al 1986)
CHAPTER V
TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT TO INCREASE CEREAL PRODUCTION IN THE WASAT
Introduction
This chapter reviews the technologies and farm management techniques that have been proposed for alleviating the production constraints in the WASAT This review uses agronomic and socio-economic data and information frGn the Purdue FSU piogram supplemented by other research from the area The FSU program conducted research in three climatic zones with village research sites in the southern portion of the Sahelo-Sudanian zone in the Sudanian zone and in the northern portion of the Sudano-Guinean climatic zone (Figure 2) Thus FSU findings and the review of most of the techshynolog0ies and recommendations reflect this orientation
As each technology is discussed it is evaluated as to the feasibility of its utilization by farmers within the short run (0 to 5 years) the intermediate run (5 to 15 years) and the long run The criteria used in the evaluation attempt to follow the strategy used by farmers in their adoption process (see Figure 5 in Chapter III and Table 1 in this chapter)
Socio-economic research suggests that farmers do not necessarily adopt technologies as a package but rather adopt single technologies or clusters of technologies en route to total package adoption (Byerlee and Hesse de Polanco 1986 Mann 1978) This is in spite of the fact that the largest impact on yields comes about when various methods (technologies) are used in combinition or as a package The farmers strategy seems to be to adopt the technologies of the package sequentially based on availability technical viability in the field economic profitability and risk conshysiderations and the resource endowment fit of the technology (ie labor and land constraints) within the farming system The technologies within the package that best exhibit the above attributes will be selected first by the farmer Other technologies will be added only after the farmer has had positive experience with the already adopted technologies and when the above attribute requirements are again met Thus while farmers can be presented with a package of technologies there seems to be an agronomically and economically logical sequence by which technological adoption will occur Information on the likely adoption pattern sequence of proposed technologies is important for focusing research extension and government programs
In this chapter available agronomic technical and socio-economic research findings are used to review and sequence the proposed technologies and farm management practices for the WASAT For example research findings from on-station and on-farm research trials are used to assess technical viablity in the field Economic budget analysis and benefit-cost
38
Table 1 Present technical and economic feasibility and time frame of proposed technologies and farm management practices for the WASAT
Technologies Present Ayronomic and Technical Feasibility Present and Farm Mgmt On-Station On-Farm Economic
Practices Research Research Feasibility Comments
Available technologies for the short run
Tied ridging (manual) +++ Very labor intensive Diguettesdikes 3 Require materials (ie rocks) Complex fertilizer ++ Risk of losing cash outlayAnimal traction 3 ++ Preconditions (see text) Mechanical ridge tier +++ ++ Requires animal traction
Potential technologies for the intermediate run Rock phosphate + - Solubility amp application problems Improved varieties ++ + - Requires upgrading of physical
environment
Potential technologies for the long run Manurecomposting +++ ++ Small and finite supply Mulch +++ ++ Small and finite supply Plowinggreen manuring ++ ++ - Poor draft animal health
Herbicides ++ ++ - Further research requiredBiol nitrogen fixation + - Further research requir Crop associations - intensification ++ + - Requires upgrading of physical - alley cropping ++ + - environment and improved
varieties Labor and management
intensive
++ High degree of feasibility--research supports a very good agronomic response or is technically very
feasible ++ Feasible--good agronomic response or technically feasible + Limited feasibility--agronomic results often inconsistent - Not feasible--little evidence to support a good agronomic response or technical feasibility
HaHighly profitable at present
= Profitable at present = Not always profitable at pres(ent
- NHot economically feasible at present
3 Not researched at the on-station level
4 Can be feasible for sole cropping but problems with mixture of broad and slender leaf plants in crop associations
39
ratios are used to determine economic profitability Research irial results and the incidence of cash outlay loss are used to assess risk Whole farm modeling and labor data analysis is used to indicate the fit of the technolshyogy within the farming systems Farmers views and comments are also incorporated
Once the technologies and farm management practices are reviewed and sequenced for either the short intermediate or long run the discussion in this chapter turns to identifying available technologies--first for the present cereal-based farming systems and second for a future more intenshysified farming system The technologies available for use in the present farming systems are then further sequenced on a recommendation domain basis
Proposed Technologies for the WASAT
The research that has been carried out in the WASAT aimed at overcomshying climatological and physical constraints and labor endowment shortages is discussed under the hicadings 1) soil fertilitywater retention techshynologies 2) labor-saving technologies 3) improved varietal research and 4) crop associations Table 1 presents a summary of the technical and ecoshynomic feasibility evaluation and a time frame for the availability of the proposed technologies and farm management practices
1) Soil FertilityWater Retention Technologies
Tied Ridges Tied ridging technology was introduced in the 1950s in West Africa (Dagg and Macartney 1968) On-station and on-farm research has shown that tied ridges significantly increase yields (Nicou and Charreau 1985 Dugue 1985 Rodriguez 1982 Ohm et al 1985a and 1985b) (see Photograph 5 page 41) FSU on farm researcher-managed (TR constructed both at and one month after planting) and farmer-managed trials (TR conshystructed 4-6 weeks after planting) have shown significant yield increases and economic returns to the additional labor required for TR on maize sorghum (Table 2 column 2) and millet (FSU 1983 Annual Report 1983 Lang et al 1984 and Ohm et al 1985a and 1985b) Manual tying of ridges is very labor intensive The manual tying of ridges constructed with animal traction requires at least 40 man hoursha (with very efficient laborers) and on average 75 man hoursha whereas constructing TR completely by hand requires at least 100 hoursha (Ohm et al 1985b) (see Photograph 6 page 41)
PJshy
-no pre-plant soil itillage no fertilization Soil scarification with animal traction~Woman planting millet by traditional manual method
-
Left fertilization right no fertilization foreground droughty area in field shy a typical view in the Central Manual construction of tiec oges in researcher-managed trial - mulch applied to somePlateau plots
D II
A
FSU researcher managed trials near Poedogo Water entrapment in depressions resulting from tied ridgesa No fertilization construction of tied ridges at plantingb No fertilization construction of tied ridges one month after plantingc No fertilization without tied ridges d Fertilization and tied ridges
Ad T7 Z
Farmer-managed plots - Left traditional method no fertilization and no tied ridging right fertilization Farmer-managed trials - Left foreground mulch applied no fertilization nor construciion of tied ridgesand tied ridging Right foreground fertilization and contruction of tied ridges one month after planting Background farmshyers traditionally managed field
43
Construction of tied ridges with mechanical ridge tier FSU researcher managed trial Background maize intershycropped with cowpeas fertilized with construction of tiedridges at planting Foreground maize intercropped with cowshypeas no fertilization nor construction of tied ridges
43 - a
Table 2 Economic analysis of farmer-managed trials of sorghum with fertilizer and tied ridges Nedogo and Diapangou 1983 and 1984
1 Treatments
C TR F TRF Nedogo 1984 Manual Traction
Grain Yield kgha 2 157 416 431 652
Yield Gain Above Control kgha - 259 274 495
Gain in Net Revenue FCFAha 3 - 23828 13275 33607
Returnhr of Additional Labor FCFA4 238 140 172- Farmers Whio Would Have Lost Cash - 0 27 9
1aedogo 1983 Manual Traction Grain Yield kgha 430 484 547 851 Yield Gain Above Control kgha - 54 117 421 Gain in Net Revenue FCFAha - 3510 -2285 17475 Returnhr of Additional Labor FCFA - 35 - 90 Farmers Who Would Have Lost Cash - 0 66 0
Diapangou 1984 Donkey Traction Grain Yield kgha 498 688 849 1133 Yield Gain Above Control kgha - 190 351 635 Gain in Net Revenue FCFAha - 17480 20359 46487 Returnhr of Additional Labor FCFA - 233 214 273 Farmers Who Would Have Lost Cash shy 0 21 0
Diapangou 1983 Donkey Traction Grain Yield kgha 481 522 837 871 Yield Gain Above Control kgha - 71 356 390 Gain in Net Revenue FCFAha - 6532 20819 23947Returnhr of Additional Labor FCFA - 87 219 141 Farmers Who Would Have Lost Cash - 0 16 12
Source Ohm et al 19851) and Lang et al 1984 Similar results were obtained at three other sites in Burkina
1 C = Control (no tied ridges or fertilizer) TR = tied ridges constructed at second weeding F = fertilizer 100 kgha 14-23-15 applied in band 10-15 cm from row at first weeding plus 50 gla urea applied in pockets 10-15 cm from seed pockets at second weeding
2 The standard error and CV (in parentheses) starting with Nedogo 1984 and conshy
tinUing through to Diapangon 1983 are 75 (43) 121 (29) 46 (18) and 43 (22) respectively Net Revenue = yield gaiii x grain price (65 and 92 FCFAkg in 1983 and 1984) minus fertilizer cost (62 and 78 CFAkg for 14-23-15 and 60 and 66 FCFAkg for urea in 1983 and 1984--fertili C prices are subsidized 40 to 50) Includes interest rate charge for six months at rate of 15 1 US dollar = 381 FCFA in 1983 and 436 FCFA in 1984 Net Revenue + additional labor of tied ridging and fertilizer application Manual and donkey traction require 100 and 75 hours of additional laborha for tied ridging respectively Fertilizer application requires 95 additional hoursha
44
Tied ridge construction has the advantage that no cash outlay is reshyquired if family labor is utilized However a survey of technology adoption by farmers in FSU villages indicated that the number of farmers constructing tied ridges and the hectarage of tied ridge construction outshyside the trial plots were small--an average of 032 hectaresfarmer with the largest being 10 hectare (Ohm et a] 1985b) When questioned farmers indicated that thev would like to construct more TR but they did not have sufficient family Iabo I ir ing from an outside labor pool is limited at the time tied ridges mu be coumstructed because the active labor force of all households is fully occupied with work in their own fields Linear programming representative farm models (Table 3 column 2) also indicate that labor availab i i ty const rainos prevent the manual tying of animal traction constructed ridges from beilng ut ilized on the entire farm
Another limitation is that tied ridging does not work well on sandy soils because the ties tend to break down in heavy rain Nevertheless aim estimated 40 of the presently cultivated land in Burkina and 15 in Mali appears to be suitable for tied ridging This represents 12 million hecshytares (Burns 1985) Tied ridges have been shown to be both agronomically and economicaly feasih Ic as a technology applicable at the present time to increase cereal product ion in the WASAT However the labor constraint requires a search for labor- saving technoloies
I)iguettesdikes There are various water conservationerosion methods in addition to tied ridges that are or could be used in the WASAT The construction of diguettes although not as effective in retaining water as tied ridges is a water conservation method that has been investigated Diguettes are barriers 10 to 15 cm high mainly made of rocks and placed on field contour lines 10 to 50 meters apart The barriers are permeable ard slow rainfall runoff to allow for increased infiltration They have imshyproved water retention and signiicantly increased yields in the norther[ (Yatenga) region of Burkina (Wright 1985) This technology has the advarshytage that it can be constructed in off peak labor periods with family labor and is not as labor intensive as tied ridging However rocks (the prinshycipal material) or other material in some regions are not available to conshystruct the diguettes Economic analysis indicates that the returns in the first year alone are greater than the labor bill (at the going wage rate) of constructing the diguettes In Burkina Faso local government agencies have constructed large dikes and barriers to control water flow at the village level Although diguettes and other forms of water retention and control require further research thme large dikes and diguettes are technologies that could be used at present
Complex Themical Fertilizers Under on-station and on-farm conditions significant yield increases for maize sorghum and millet have been obtained using complex mineral fertilizers (Pieri 1985 Ohm et al 1985b FSU Annual Reports) Yield response to fertilizer is however highly variable between sites and years (Spencer 1985) Nevertheless some researchers sugsest that continuous cropping using chemical fertilizers is potentially possible in the WASAT (see Pier 1985 p 77 for a literature review
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
45
Table 3 Whole farm modeling analysis of tied ridging with donkey tracshytion Central Plateau Burkina Faso
Tied-Ridging Technology Traditional Tied with Machine Management Tied by Two One
Variable (donkey) Hand Passes Pass -------------------- hectares---------------------
Total Area Cultivated 55 56 56 55 Maize
Traditional 20 - - -With Tied Ridges 20 20 20
Red Sorghum Traditional 60 - - -With Tied Ridges 60 60 60
White Sorghum Traditional 80 51 With Tied Ridges 29 80 80
Millet Traditional 318 315 315 184 With Tied Ridges - 33 164
Peanuts 76 85 53 43
Total Cereals Production ---------------------- kgs------------------------Per Househol 2103 2436 2651 2737 Per Resident 150 174 189 196
Net Farm Income 3 000s FCFA-------------------Per Household 2153 2462 2535 2622 Per Worker 308 352 362 375
1 Labor times of 75 man hoursha for tying of the ridges by hand 20 man
hoursha to machine tie with two passes and 2 aan hours to machine tie with one pass Yield estimates in kgsha for traditional practices and the technical intervention of tied ridging are as follows maize (1090 to 1730) red sorghum (672 to 940) white sorghum (472 to 660) and milshylet (320 to 415) 1985 fertilizer and grain prices were used
2 Based on 14 residentshousehold Annualized cost of 4400 FCFA for tied-ridging machine subtracted in colshyumns 3 and 4 Based on 7 active workershousehold
46
and references) Decreases in yield and fertilizer efficiency however have been observed after two to five years of continuous cropping where organic matter has not been incorporated into the soil (Pieri 1985)
In Burkina Faso on-farm researcher-managed trials indicate that the response of maize yields to tertilizer on the relatively high fertilitycompound soils was not economically profitable (1982 FSU Annual Report 1983) On-farm farmer-managed trials indicated that fertilizer can be profitable when using fertilizer alone on sorghum (Table 2 column 3) There is however considerable risk for the farmer of losing the cash outshylay when fertilizer is used alone as demonstrated by the percentage of farmers who would have lost cash in Table 2 column 3 Both yield and profitability substantially inicrease however when tied ridges and fertilshyizer are used in combination as indicated in Table 2 column 4 Also as shown in column 4 the risk of losing the cash outlay from the purchase of fertilize substantially decreases when fertilizer and TR are used in comshybination Fertilizer in combination with TR for millet on millet land has also been shown to be profitable with only a modera e risk of farmers losshying the fertilizer cash outlay (Ohm et al 1985a)
A survey of four FSU villages in Burkina indicated a range of fertilshyizer use )n cereals from zero farmers in the sample of the northern village of Bangasse to 33 of the farmers in the southern village sample from Poedogo which has better land and higher rainfall In the more northern region fertilizer use is riskier due to lower and more erratic rainfall Average hectarage fertilized in the villages that used fertil zer ranged from 034 ha at Nedogo to 3 ha at Poedogo (Ohm et al 1985b) Although the use rate per hectare was not established field staff indicated it was substantially lower than the 100 kga of 14-23-15 fertilizer applied to most of the FSU trials in the villages
The evidence to date on fertilizer use in the WASAT suggests that comshyplex fertilizers are a technolegy that can be used at present but yields are highly variable and the incidence of fertilizer cash outlay loss by farmers is high unless combined with a water retention technique such as TR The risk of losing cash decreases in the higher soil fertility and higher rainfall areas Empirical evidence also suggests that fertilizer use or water retention techniques such as TR when used alone can be economshyically feasible but that when used together the profitability substanshytially increases Moreover the number of farmers losing cash decreases subFstantially as compared with the fertilizer only strategy
Indigenous Rock Phosphate The benefits of using indig ous rock phosphate deposits in the WASAT are potentially appealling in terms of logistcs transportation cost advantages and foreign exchange savings Workable deposits occur in Senegal Mali Niger Togo Benin Nigeria and Burkina Faso On-station and on-farm trials have however found the rock phosphate to have solubility problems (IFDC 1985 Pieri 1985) The comshybination of the low P release in a water-soluble form that is readily available for use by plants aid the low I-sorption capacity of the WASAT soils have resulted in poor agronomic performance from rock phosphate applications There is little or no potential for direct application of WASAT rock phosphate with the possible exception of the Mali (Tilemsi) and Niger (Tahoual) deposits (IFDC 1985)
47
Two methods are used to increase the agronomic effectiveness of rock phosphate One method is to highly granulate the rock and the other method is acidulation Even when highly granulated the agronomic effrectiveness is low and several years of consecutive applications are required before significant yield increases are observed (IFDC 1985 FSU Annual Reports) After several years of application benefit-cnst ratios were still lower than other sources of phosphorous (IFDC 1985)
Four years of FSU on-farm farmer-managed trials in Burkina Faso using highly granulated Burkina rock phosphate (100 kgha rock phosphate with 50 kgha urea applied each year on the same plots) also indicated low benefitshycost ratios Benefit-cost ratios of less than one with a 50 subsidized rock phosphate price were obtained (Unpublished FSU data) In the same experiment benefit-cost ratios of 13 were obtained from a rock phosphate tied ridging treatment but the benefit-cost ratio decreased to 069 when unsubsidized prices were used FSU cooperator farmers did not like using the rock phosphate due to its poor agronomic performance and application problems due to its highly granulated form
IFDC has developed two processes for the partial acidulation of rock phosphate Acidulation with sulfuric or phosphoric acid converts the calshycium phosphate into a more soluble form Research on the agronomic effecshytiveness of partially acidulated rock phosphate in the WASAT has given conshyflicting results (Batiano et al 1985) Inconsistent results were obtained by FSU with 50 acidulated Burkina rock phosphate in a one year on-farm researcher-managed trial with sorghum and millet (Ohm et al 1985a) The partially acidulated rock phosphate is also highly granulated giving rise to farmer application problems
Few economic studies of acidulated rock phosphate are available for the WASAT When compared with single superphosphate the relative economic performance of acidulated rock phosphate on millet in Niger is generally lower but is not consistent across sites or years (IFDC 1985)
To be agronomically and economically feasible the solubility problems of rock phosphate will have to be overcome The present effectiveness of acidulation requires further on-farm testing Once rock phosphate became agronomically and economically feasible fertilizer plants and distribution networks would require several years to develop A source of sulfuric or phosphoric acid at economically feasible prices is also required (Pieri 1985) Thus rock phosphate appears to be a technology most appropriate in the intermediate run after the technical problems of solubility and applishycation are resolved economically at the farm level
Animal Manure and Compost Manure and compost are already being used effectively on fields near the compound although application and composting techniques could be more efficient (Pieri 1985 Table 11) The principal constraint to the increased use of manuring and composting is their finite supply Few organic waste materials are left once the household and animal feed requirements are met Manure availability will increase only when animals are penned to make collection possible However cattle are grazed on fallow land away from the living quarters and the labor involved in conshyfined rearing of animals is too great Cattle are also entrusted to herdshyers because of feed shortages close to the village As fallow land
48
declines in the old settlement areas it will be increasingly difficult to support cattle near the village and in the area in general
While animal manure and composting are agronomically and economically feasible for use around the compound area at present they do not representfarm management practices that will substantially increase cereal producshytion in the WASAT in the short and intermediate run because of their finite supply Their potential will only be realized in the long run when the farming system evolves from the dominant cereal-based system to a more intensive cereal-foragecash crop system that is able to support more liveshystock near the village
Mulch Crop residue mulch can reduce rainfall runoff and increase water infiltration but sorghum amid millet stalks in raw or compost form mayadd little to soil fertility (Pieri 1985 p 91) As with manure the principal limiting factor of mulch is its finite supply--especially in the northern half of the WASAT The demand for its uses as animal feed fuel and construction materia] leaves most fields bare by planting time and even when it is not all used the prevalent custom is to burn it Moreover crop residues (3 to 5 Tha) are not sufficient by themselvEs to increase soil fertility and writer retention capacity appreciably In addition applications of mulch (10 Tha) can give rise to nitrogen deficiency which can only be overcome by composting or the addition of nitrogen (Pieri 1985)
Plowinggreen manuring Significant yield increases from on-station and n-farm research have been observed from deep ploughing and tillagepractices which change the structure of the soil allowing better root establishment and improved water infiltration and storage (Nicou and Charreau 1985 I)ugue 1985) Most tillage in the WASAT is done by shalshylow manual cultivation (85 of farmers) or by shallow animal traction cultivation Little pre-plant ploughing or tillage is done because of the need to plant soon after a rain (within 2 to 3 days) The soil is genershyally too hard and the animals too weak at this time of year for effective ploughing to take place before a major rain
Green manuring can also increase the fertility of the soil and add to its water retention capacity (Pieri 1985) However this practice also requires deep ploughing to incorporate the plants into the soil To be effective pre-plant and deep ploughing and green manure incorporation all require substantial draft power which can only be given by healthy well fed double ox teams This type of draft power will be available only in the long run when the farming systems can support high level-maintenance of the draft animals
2) Labor Saving Technologies
Animal Traction An estimated fifteen percent of farms in the WASAT use animal traction--mainly for transport shallow weeding or shallow land-preparation plowing (Matlon 1985) (see Photograph 2 page 40) Farmshyers in general use only one mechanized operation rather than using animal traction for all the agricultural activities of soil preparation plantingand weeding (Jaeger 1985) To date animal traction usage in the WASAT can be characterized as iand using (extensive) Some studies have reported
49
significant farm area expansion from animal traction usage Animal tracshytion can perform weeding 6 to 7 times faster than manual weeding (Jaeger and Sanders 1985) Increased yield effects have been reported in the literature (mainly from ploughing) but the yield effects are generally small (Binswanger 1978)
In spite of low animal traction adoption in the WASAT at present it is a technology that is feasible for use in the short run Animal traction can be made more economically attractive to farmers Present internal rates of return can be doubled and tripled by higher utilization rates (Jaeger 1985) Higher utilization rates can be achieved by increasing the number of mechanized operations In the past many animal traction proshygrams have failed in the WASAT because utilization rates were not suffishyciently high Returns to first time users of animal traction in the first years of operation are generally low because learning curves can be as long as five years and is a deterrent to first time users (Jaeger and Sanders 1985) First time users can obtain the full benefit of nechanizatior quicker through farmer and animal extension training and an improved market for trained draft animals
Mechanical Ridge Tier To respond to the labor constraint in conshystructing tied ridges the IITASAFGRAD Agronomy Program designed a protoshytype mechanical ridge tier (MRT) (Figure 6) for animal traction (Wright and Rodriguez 1985) (see Photographs 7 and 9 pages 41 42) With FSU and IITA SAFGRAD collaboration ihe MRT was field tested as part of Burkinas 1985 national farming systems program (Nagy et al 1986a) Yield levels compare favorably between ridges constructed with animal traction and tied manually and those ridges made with the MRT When the two pass method is used (first ridging and then using the MRT) the MRT substantially reduces the labor requirements from an average 75 man hoursha for the manual tyingof animal traction ridges to 20 man hoursha The MRT operation requires only 2 to 3 additional hours above ridging alone when ridging and tying with the MRT are done simultaneously (one pass) Donkeys must be strong and healthy for the one pass method Oxen which are mainly available on the frontier clearly have an advantage and can easily do both operations simultaneously
Linear programming representative farm models indicate that while available labor constrains the tying of ridges manually to 11 ha (Table 3 column 2) the MRT can tie 32 ha when using the one-pass method (Table 3 column 4) and is highly profitable The profitability is further increased with the addition of fertilizer (Table 4) although hectarage under tied ridges decreases to 09 for manual tying and to 30 with the MRT because labor is required for fertilizer application Budget analysis also indishycates the profitability of the MRT urder vaiious prices and goodbad year weather scenarios (Nagy et al 1986a)
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10
9
3 Latch lever 8 30 cm ridger that allows soil to flow over the top
4 Rubber band (inner tube strip) 9 Handles of houe Manga (FAQ donkey weecer) 5 Latch adjuster (for correct angle and to 10 Bicycle cable to brake lever
compensate for wear in bearings shovels and latch)
Figure 6 The ITASAFGRAD mechanical ridge tier (donkey version)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
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Table 4 Whole farm modeling analysis of a tied ridging-fertilization technology combination with donkey traction Central Plateau Burkina Faso
Tied-Ridging Technology Traditional Tied with Machine Management Tied by Two One
Variable (donkey) Hand Passes Pass ------------------- hectares---------------------
Total Area Cultivated 55 56 57 56 Maize
Traditional 20 With Tied Ridges 20 15 15
Red Sorghum Traditional 60 With Tied Ridges 60 68 60
White Sorghum Traditional 80 70 With Tied Ridges 10 80 95
Millet Traditional 318 315 318 188 With Tied Ridges 05 127
Peanuts 76 86 79 71
Total Cereals Production -------------------- kgs Per Househol 2103 2604 2970 3354 Per Resident 10 186 212 240
Net Farm Income3 000s FCFA-------------------Per Household 2153 2532 2732 2964 Per Worker 308 362 390 423
ource Nagy et al 1985 Based un application of 100 kgha 14-23-15 fertilizer at planting and 50 kgha urea four weeks after planting (20 man hoursha labor requirement for each application) Labor times of 75 man hoursha for tying of the ridges by hand 20 man hoursha to machine tie with two passes and 2 man hoursha to machine tie in one pass Yield estimates in kgsha for trashyditional practices and the technological interventions of fertilization and tied ridges in combination are as follows maize - not fertilized (1090 to 1730) red sorghum (672 to 1236) white sorghum (472 to 913) and millet (320 to 660) 1985 fertilizer and grain prices were used Based on 14 residentshousehold
4 Annualized cost of 4400 FCFA for machine subtracted in columns 3 and 4 Based on 7 active workershousehold
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Information from farmer questionnaires and field staff indicates that the major problem with the MRT is its awkwardness However most farmers were able to operate the MRT fairly efficiently after 15 to 30 minute- in the field Several engineering features require redesigning but the overshyall consensus of the field trials is that the MRT or a machine similar to the MRT can be used at present not only as a labor-saving device but also as a yield-increasing technology
Herbicides Herbicides could be used to decrease the labor constraint in the peak-labor-demand plantingweeding period (Spencer 1985) At present acquiring herbicides in the WASAT is difficult and little research has been done to tailor herbicides to WASAT conditions Both broad leaf and slender leaf plants as well as various trees are grown in association in the same field and these are sensitive to different herbicides
Economic analysis in northern Nigeria (Ogungbile 1980) suggests that weeding either by animal traction or manually is more profitable than herbicides at present Herbicides will find an increasing role in the WASAT only when cropping intensities are increased to the point where they require more intensive weeding (Norman 1982) and when the opportunity cost of labor substantially increases (Ruthenberg 1980)
3) Improved Varietal Pesearch
Few improved varieties of food crops are used by farmers in the WASAT Significant yield increases for varietal improvement from on-station reshysearch have been observed but a large yield gap between on-station and onshyfarm yields exists especially for the staple crops of sorghum and millet Experimental results suggest that the cereal y6 eld gap is less for local than for improved cultivars (Matlon 1985) Yields from FSU on-farm trials in Burkina for improved maize red and white sorghum and cowpeas rarely exceeded the yields of local varieties of the traditional management treatments (FSU Annual Reports)
Analysis by ICRISAT of sorghum and millet cultivars indicate that the on-station selection procedures under a high management environment (high fertility tillage and water management) have resulted in elite cultivars being more management responsive than local varieties but at the same time inferior at lower management levels (Matlon 1985) This suggests that breeding objectives should include screening and selection procedures that can provide cultivars which also exploit moderate management levels and that there is a need to hasten the process of variety evaluation onto onshyfarm trials (Matlon 1985) With the current selection procedures the full impact from varietal development will only be felt in the WASAT when farmers utilize a higher degree of improved management practices--practices such as an MRT-fertilizer combination--which would not take place until the intermediate run Also even if change ocur in the present breeding objectives leading to the development of new varieties able to exploit moderate management levels these vayleties will only be available in the intermediate run (five to ten years)
4) Crop Associations
Experiment station studies of different crop associations have received increased attention in the WASAT over the past 15 years (Fussell
53
and Serafini 1985) Significant aggregate biological yields from intensishyfying cereal-cowpea associations have been obtained in research station trials (Fussell and Serafini 1985 Muleba1985) Increased legume densishyties however are normally accompanied by serious insect infestation probshylems requiring pesticide spraying The role that biological nitrogen fixashytion has played in obtaining the increased aggregate yields in cerealshylegume associations in the WASAT is yet to be determined (Fussell and Serifini 1985) Studies have shown however that under WASAT water stress and mineral deficiency conditions some legumes may contribute to nitrogen losses (Pieri 1985)
On-farm researcher-iianaged trials indicate that the most limiting facshytors in the performance of cereal-cowpea association intensification are soil moisture and fertility (Ohm et al 1985a) Under favorable condishytions of moisture and fertility it is profitable to increase cowpeadensity but under less favorable conditions the present practice of the farmers seems to be more dependable and profitable (Ohm et al 1985a)Under improved management (tied ridges fertilizer and pesticides) cowpeadensities somewhat higher than those currently used by farmers appear to be economically viable (Ohm et al 1985a) There are however instances where increased cowpea density has decreased sorghum yields (Matlon 1983)
Socio-economic studies indicate that farmers are primarily concerned with maintaining cereal yields and that modifications in cowpea densities and cultural practices that decrease cereal yield will not be adopted bythe farmer (Sawadogo et al 1985 Diehl and Sipkens 1985 Matlon 1983)Labor data analysis indicates that intensified cereal-cowpea associations substantially increase planting and weeding requirements (Matlon 1983)Depending on the planting date intensification can change the distribution of labor demand and reduce the amount of labor required for final weedingbecause of the cowpeas competition with the weeds Although returns to labor can be greater under intensification farmers do cite lower cereal yields and increased labor demands as the prime reasons for not intensifyshying (Matlon 1983)
Limited research has been carried out on cropping associations involvshying trees in the WASAT Alley cropping--food crops grown in the alleyformed by rows of leguminous shrubs or trees--could form one basis for changing traditional shifting cultivation practices (Kang et al 1984)Alley cropping does possess many potential advantages such as providingmulch firewood biologically fixed nitrogen animal feed and erosion conshytrol However it is very management-intensive and has not been thoroughly researched in the WASAT
Some intensification of cereal and legume crops can take place in the intermediate run once the physical environment is improved but significant crop intensification alley cropping and biological nitrogen fixation would contribute their greatest potential in the long run after farmers first increase their cereal production
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Sequencing of Technologies and Farm Management Practices in the WASAT
With falling cereal yields and the decline of the bush-fallow system in high density population areas the first necessity is to develop new technology systems to increase cereal yields Based upon the information of the proposed technologies as to their present agronomic technical and economic feasibility (Table 1) the overall sequential pattern of technoshylogical adoption would be to use the technologies available in the short run to alleviate the soil fertilitvwater retention constraints ie fertilizer tied ridges diguettes and dikes This would require alleviatshying the labor constraint in the peak-labor-demand period of plantingweedshying through available labor-saving technologies ie animal traction and the MRT
Once the agronomic environment has been improved new variety developshyment will be facilitated The development of these varieties will take time and be available in the intermediate run as compared with the more immediate availability of the tied ridgingfertilization technology combishynation Crop association intensification and diversification and other long run technologies and farm management techniques would then be incorshyporated as they become technically feasible Thus the overall sequential pattern of technology adoption can be dichotomized into a) technologies for the present cereal based farming systems and b) technologies and farm manshyagement practices for the Euture (intensified) farming systems
Technologies for the Present Farming Systems
Production constraints household endowments and household decision making characteristics are heterogeneous in the WASAT leiding to differshyences in the technology requirements and adoption patterns of various households Thus the delineation of recommendation domains can aid the targeting of research extension and government policy and programs This section of the chapter first delineates a set of recommendation domains based on production constraints household characteristics and resource endowments The technologies available in the short run (Table 1) are then sequenced as to the probable adoption pattern within each recommendation domain
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Recommendation Domains Based on Production Constraints
The labor endowment shortage is homogeneous throughout the WASAT but access to land is not Old settlement high-population-density areas exhibit limited to zero fallow rotation due to the limited access to land In general land quality and yield in the older settlement areas is lower than on the frontier which has access to land ind utilizes the traditional bush-fallow system Both intensification and extensification options are available on the frontier whereas only the intensification options are available in the old settlement areas due to the limited access to land Thus technology adoption choices are different in the two areas and a delineation can be made on a population density basis as follows
A Old settlementhigh-population-density areas (ie Central Plateau Burkina Faso)
B Frontierlow-population-density areas
Recommendation domains can also be made on an agroclimatic basis Higher rainfall and relatively higher soil fertility in a general north to south direction within the WASAT vary technology requirements and expected adoption patterns
Recommendation Domains Based on Household Characteristics and Endowments
Farmers have been found to be mainly risk averse (Binswanger 1980 Dillon and Scandizzo 1978) However the risk aversion of farmers within a group may range between high risk aversion and low risk avoidance depending on their initial endowments ie wealth Theoretically the risk that a household will assume is positively correlated with household wealth-shywealth being largely embodied in livestock holdings (mainly cattle) Wealth can also be considered positively correlated with the ability of a household to invest in purchased inputs or absorb larger losses in a poor rainfall season Household characteristics are further delineated into the type cf traction (manual or animal) presently being used This leads to the following recommendation domains Ysed on the household characteristics of risk wealth and type of traction
I A high risk aver3e low wealth manual tillage household--may only adopt low riT technologies and has limited ability to buy purshychased inputs
II A low risk averse high wealth animal traction household--chance of technology adoption higher due to the greater ability to buy purchased inputs
III A low risk averse high wealth manual traction household--chance of technology adoption higher due to greater ability to buy purshychased inputs but has not yet made the transition to animal traction
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Six recommendation domains are presented in Table 5 based upon the household characteristics and population density (access to land) typoloshygies described earlier The recommendation domains are for the 500 to 900 mm annual rainfall regions The potential sequential adoption patterns of the available technologies in the short run for the present cereal based farming systems--complex fertilizers tied ridging animal traction and the MRT--are presented in Table 5 for each recommendation domain The sequencing patterns of the technologies for each recommendation domain are based on the previous discussion of farmers adoption strategies where technologies are adopted singly or in clusters in a logical agronomic and economR sequence This is discussed for each recommendation domain below
IA High Risk Averse Central Plateau Manual Households
With limited access to land limited ability to buy purchased inputs and high risk aversion the opportunities for the household in the first stage of technology adoption are to manually construct tied ridges and use other water retention techniques such as diguettes which use available famshyily labor Linear programming (LP) results indicate that up to 1 hectare could be put in tied ridges manually by the average household which would increase production and income (Table 3 column 1) Also survey results indicated that households used tied ridging at FSU village sites and did tied ridging between 13 and 1 hectare per household (Ohm et al 1985a) Tied ridging is agronomically feasible and economically profitable For this highly risk averse group tied ridging is especially attractive beshycause there is no ris 5of losing a cash outlay with only family labor being utilized for ridging
The next step in the sequence of technology adoption would involve a cash outlay Fertilizer is an option on the land in tied ridges espeshycially in the more southern regions of the WASAT where rainfall is higher Fertilizer use although profitable (Table 2 column 4 Nedogo) would be limited by the small hectarage under tied ridges and the tendency of this group of farmers to avoid risks
Animal traction in combination with the MRT would seem to be the next step in the sequence This combination is not only labor saving but yield increasing as well The addition of the MRT to the machinery complement increases the internal rate of return from 10 for animal traction fWeedshying) alone (Jaeger 1984) to between 30-40 on the Central Plateau LP analysis (Table 3 column 4) indicates that the combination of animal tracshytion and the MRT enables the construction of tied ridges on up to 65 of available cereal land on the average or representative farm and increases total cereals production and income above that of traditional practices and
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Table 5 Recommendation domains and likely sequential adoption patterns of technologies in the WASAT
1 2Household Central Plateau Frontier Characteristics A B
I High risk aversion 1 Manual tied ridges-diguettes 1 Animal traction 3
Low wealth endowment 2 Animal traction-MRT 2 MRT Manual traction 3 Fertilizer 3 Fertilizer
4 Improved varieties 4 Improved varieties
II Low risk aversion 1 Fertilizer 1 MRT High wealth endowment 2 MRT 2 Fertilizer Animal traction 3 Improved varieties 3 Improved varieties
III Low risk aversion 1 Fertilizer 1 Animal traction High wealth endowmont 2 Animal traction 2 MRT Manual traction 3 MRT 3 Fertilizer
4 Improved varieties 4 Improved varieties
1 High density population limited access to land and in general lower quality land than the Frontier
2 Low population density access to land and in generel higher quality land than the Central Plateau
T MRT - the mechanical ridge tier
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17
manual tied ridging With the increase in income households would then be in a better position to purchase fertilizers Internal rates of return for an animal traction-MRT-fertilizer combination range from 25-30 and increase production and income over the animal traction-MRT combination (contrast Table 3 column 4 with Table 4 column 4)
IB High Risk Averse Frontier Manual Households
Households included in this category could follow the manual tied ridgingdiguette regime of Type IA households on maize compound land but may find it as profitable and less labor constraining to maintain the bushshyfallow system for sorghum and millet and use animal traction The present internal rate of return using donkey and ox traction has been estimated to be 31 and 21 respcCtively for a frontier area but the rates of return can be doubled with increased utilization thus making the technology very profshyitable (Jaeger 1984) Next in the sequential adoption pattern would be the use of the MRT The use of the MRT by households may not be used conshycurrently with the introduction of animal traction but the incentive for its utilization would increase as population pressure increased and land became more scarce With internal rates of return of 35-40 for donkey traction and 25-30ior ox traction mechanical ridge tying at the frontier could be expected The third step in the sequence would be the addition of fertilizer
IlA Low Risk Averse Central Plateau Animal Traction Households
Animal traction households exhibiting a lower risk aversion and a greater ability to buy purchased inputs will likely find fertilizer as the best option particularly in the more southern areas of the WASAT with higher rainfall The option of using animal traction to extensify is not available because of the limited access to land and thus the next technolshyogy in the sequential adoption pattern would be to use animal traction to intensify using the MRT
IIB Low Risk Averse Frontier Manual Households
As in IB the extensification option of using animal traction will continue to dominate until increased population pressure limits access to land thus making the intensification option of using the MRT more attracshytive--especially in the northern areas of the WASAT where the rainfall is more limited and Aserratic soil fertility declines fertilizer will become more profitable
IIIA Low Risk Averse Central Plateau Manual Households
Households in this category are expected to choose fertilizer over manual tying of ridges because they have the ability to purchase it and are less averse to taking risk Manual tied ridging could also be an option at first but presented with the opportunity of using an animal traction-MRT combination households would probably choose the latter
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IIIB Low Risk Averse Frontier Manual Tillage Households
Although these households would not be averse to using the land-subshystituting inputs a higher payoff is likely to come from extensification using animal traction in the initial stages of technology introduction As population pressure on the higher quality land increases increased utilshyization of the MRT and fertilizer would be expected
In summary different sequential adoption patterns exist for the difshyferent recommendation domains Adoption is expected to be more rapid by those in the low risk aversehigh wealth categories Given the present levels of research exteksion and government program support some groups such as the high risk averselow wealth old settlement farmers may never adopt any of the technologies
Tied ridging chemical fertilizer and animal traction have all been potentially available to farmers in the WASAT over the last two decades Yet little adoption of these technologies for cereal production has taken place Our hypothesis for this lack of adoption is that while the indivishydual technologiuts may be technically and economically feasible the ecoshynomic impact of individual technologies for the level of risk involved has not been sufficiently high Both farm trials and whole-farm modeling indishycate a substantially higher impact from the simultaneous introduction of all three technologies including the MRT The combined introduction of these technologies alleviates the soil fertility soil water and labor constraints and provides tilarge economic incentive at low levels of risk
The requirement th t the available technologies be introduced simulshytaneously to satisfy farmers risk and profit levels before they will be adopted is in conflict with the empirical finding that farmers adopt innoshyvations sequentially An alternative is to wait until new technologies are developed that satisfy the high profit-low risk criteria so that they will be adopted individually in a sequential manner Another alternative is to use support programs in view of the pressing nature of the problems in the WASAT Support trograms would have to take into consideration the sequenshytial nature of adoption while trying to achieve total package adoption as quickly as possible Animal traction farmers may adopt an MRTfertilizer package simultaneously given high economic incentives and support programs but clearly for manual farmers (the majority) the combined introduction of animal traction the MRT and a fertilizer package all at once in one year is too great
The main thrust of the support program should be to select the first technology within each recommendation donain (Table 5) and provide economic incentives that make the level of risk of the technology acceptable to farmers For example the first technology in the sequence of recommendashytion domains IB and IIB (Table 5) is animal traction Support programs
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would be required to deal with the pre-conditions for animal traction adopshytion (as discussed in Chapters IV and V) and provide adequate economic incentives At a later period when farmers are acquainted with animal traction support programs would deal with the next technology in the sequence for each recommendation domain Following this procedure will reduce the adoption time between technologies within the package The supshyport programs should lead to the adoption of a soil fertility-water retention-labor saving technology package within each recommendation domain Without support programs technology adoption of the present techshynologies available to the WASAT will be very slow with some farmers--in particular the high risk averselow wealth farmers--not adopting any of the technologies
Technologies for Future Farming Systems
The long-run goal of technology introduction for future farming sysshytems is to change the upgraded dominant cereal-based farming system into a more intensified cereal-foragelivestock-cash crop farming systemInformation on the agronomic and economic feasibility of the technologies that may come into play in future farming systems is incomplete making it impossible to sequence the individual technologies as was done for technolshyogies available for present farming systems
Improvements in the present cereal-based farming systems will set the stage for a more intensive crop association and rotation regime Given the yield increase from the fertilizertied ridgesimproved variety combinashytion an estimation has been made that moderate cereal surpluses could be expected in the WASAT in the future with the adoption of these technologies (Savadogo 1986) This would make it possible to shift some production out of cereals and utilize available land labor and capital on more intensive cerealforagecash crop rotations--especially cereallegume rotations that could provide biological nitrogen fixation and reduce the costs of and dependency upon outside sources of nitrogen
Feed availability would increase livestock numbers and improve animal traction not only by better nutrition but also by shifting to more oxen power and away from the lower draft donkey power that dominates low qualityforage farming systems This would mean better crop residue incorporation and green manuring opportunities With increased livestock numbers in proximity to the household more manure would be available Although farmshyers would initially adopt these technologies sequentially the process of adoption would be an iterative one as the more intensive use of one techshynology allows a more intensive use of another ie increased forageallows more cattle to be kept near the compound resulting in more manure which in turn may allow more forage hectarage
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Footnotes
It would be more appropriate to measure risk in terms of a time series
variance (ie over many years) as opposed to a cross sectional varishyance method (ie over many farmers in one year) as used here Three years of data make it difficult to undertake a time series risk analyshysis For a textbook treatment of risk analysis see Anderson et al 1977
2 Tied ridges (TR) are small depressions made between crop rows either by
hand tillage or by a combination of animal traction and hand tillage When constructed by hand depressions 32 cm long x 24 cm wide x 16 cm deep spaced 1-12 meters apart are made between the rows When conshystructed with animal traction the fields are first ridged with a cultishyvator (houe manga) which is equipped with a middle sweep to create a furrow This is then followed by hand tillage to make a 16 cm high ridge perpendicular to the furrow every one to two meters The depresshysions catch and hold water after a rain and increase water infiltration and retention Due to the larger water holding capacity of animal tracshytion tied ridges water retention ability is greater than that of manually tied ridges
One exception should be noted Traditionally maize is grown on the relshyatively higher fertility compound land Three years of on-farm researcher-manageu trials experimenting with maize on non-compound land with TR in general did not show significant yield increases (FSU Annual Report 1983 Lang et al 1984 and Ohm et al 1985a) These expershyiments appear to indicate the need to first utilize organic material or fertilizer to convert the less fertile land into the equivalent of comshypound land before putting the tied ridges on it if maize is to be grown there
4 All the FSU economic analyses have been carried out using subsidized fertilizer prices (40 to 50) Clearly the economic profitability would be lower and the incidence of fertilizer cash outlay loss greater utilizing unsubsidized prices
Trials examining the possibility of growing maize on good sorghum land and sorghum on good millet land by upgrading the soil through a fertilshyizertied ridge combination were also conducted Three years of onshyfarm researcher-managed maize on sorghum land trials proved inconclushysive (FSU Annual Reports) and although a sorghum on millet land experishyment showed promise sorghum plant establishment was a problem (Ohm et al ]985a)
6 The observed farmer adoption rates in different regions correlate well
with experimental evidence which sugests that yields are less variable and more responsive to fertilizer and that there is less risk of losing fertilizer cash outlay as rainfall levels and land quality improves
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When questioned farmers said that they saw the value of fertilizer but that credit and availability were obstacles to greater use All complex fertilizers are imported from outside the WASAT and usually distribution within each country is handled by a para-statal organization
8 An FSU on-farm farmer-managed experiment involving tied ridges and
mulch (5 Tha) on maize was conducted in two village sites in Burkina in 1984 (Ohm et al 1985a p 17) The mulch part of the experiment was abandoned since only 6 of the 50 farmers had access to sufficient mulch
The MRT is attached to an animal drawn cultivator with one large middle sweep The MRT is essentially a paddle wheel (45 cm in diameter) with four paddles one scraping the ground building up earth until it is tripped by the operator every 1-12 to 2 meters to create the tie in the furrow between the two ridges
10 Analysis of five management factors--plowing tied ridges fertilization
timing planting arrangement and weeding timing--indicated that the major determinants of the yield gap between the experiment station and farmers fields were plowing and tied ridges (Matlon 1985) Also the major problems observed in the on-farm trials with the elite cultivars are drought and heat stress related leading to poor seedling establishshyment and poor flowering and grain filling ability Spittlebug problems have occurred on the new sorghum variety of Framida (Ohm et al 1985b) and striga continues to be a problem with most new sorghum varieties
11 The development of hybrid varieties such as the hybrid sorghums bred for
the Sudan (Gebisa 1986) may play a role in obtaining moderate level management response The poor marketing infrastructures of the WASAT however vould prevent hybrids from being a technology that could be used in the short run Present breeding for disease and pest resistance in sorghim and millet is encouraging (Andrews 1986 Andrews et al 1985) and is expected to play an important role in increasing cereal yields in the intermediate run
12 Empirical evidence linking reduced risk aversion with higher levels of
wealth is not available in the WASAT It has been a standard part of decision theory that at higher levels of wealth risk aversion would decrease (Anderson et al 1977) This proposition seems to be consisshytent with field interviews with farmers about their objectives (see Chapter IV page of this report)
13 Not included among the categories is a high risk averse low wealth
animal traction household While this category undoubtedly exists in the WASAT the number of households in this category would alot be large
14 The recommendation domains presented in Table 5 are discussed at the
inter-household level which considers resource endowments and decisionshymaking in the context of a family unit vis-a-vis another family unit
63
The recommendation domains could also be discussed at the intrashyhousehold level which considers differences--in gender age and access to and control of resources within the household--which may lead to difshyferences in the sequencing and types of technologies adopted by the various sub-groups (see McKee 1983 Nagy et al 1985)
15 The opportunity cost of labor (wage rate from outside employment) ranges
from 30 to 50 FCFAhr (FSU unpublished survey data) At an opportunity cost of 35 FCFAhr farmers would not have lost money by undertaking the construction of tied ridges (Table 2)
16 Calculations made using the procedure by Jaeger (1984) and adding apshy
propriate costs and revenues based on FSU on-farm farmer-managed trials to estimate the yield increases from the use of the MRT (Ohm et al 1985b Nagy et al 1986)
17 The weekly available labor hour figures used in the model are based on
conservative estimates Increasing the labor availabilities by 10 to 20 for the tied ridging period andor allowing tied ridging to also take place in the following period results in tied ridges being conshystructed on all the cereal land
CHAPTER VI
POLICY IMPLICATIONS AND FUTURE AVENUES FOR RESEARCH AND EXTENSION
This report has proposed that the overall sequence of technology intervention for the WASAT is 1) technologies that improve the agronomicenvironment ie water retention and soil fertility improvement With appropriate policy and institutional support this technology combination can be immediately implemented 2) the use when they become available of improved varieties that can exploit moderate input levels If varieties are developed for the moderate input levels recommended in 1) above this techshynology is expected to be available for farmer adoption in the next five to ten years and 3) more intensive livestockcereal systems in the better agricultural areas and a shift back to extensive grazing and forestry in the more marginal agricultural regions There are many types of technolshyogies for those intensive livestockcerealcash crop systems that can now be productively studied on the experiment station and in on-farm trials so that these systems can be available to farmers after the next decade
The first priority of the agricultural policy research and extension community in the WASAT is to develop technologies to increase the yields of the cereal-based systems dominate the The presentfarming which area focus should be on alleviating the low soil fertilitylow soil water retenshytion constraints Complex fertilizers the water retention methods of tied ridges diguettes and dikes and the labor-saving technologies of animal traction and the mechanical ridge tier are a]rady available for extension in much of the region
Tied ridging chemical fertilizer and animal traction however have all been potentially available to farmers in the WASAT for more than two decades Yet there has been little adoption by WASAT food crop producers of any of these three innovations This is because there was little ecoshynomic incentive to adopt these technologies prior to the 1960s because food consumption needs were being met Moreover there was little export demand for sorghum and millct Hence there was little demand for new cereal technologies However with increased population recent droughtsand the deterioration of the soil quality in the higher population regions during the intervening years the demand for new cereal technology has subshystantially increased
Credit fertilizer and animal traction non-availability and lack of information have all been cited as reasons for the low level of farmer adoption of the above technologies in the WASAT From our perspective the principal reason for the failure to adopt these individual components is that the economic impact of each of the three components has not been sufshyficiently high by itself Fertilizer utilization is too risky in poorrainfall years without some simultaneous method to increase the availabilshy
water the critical times of plant development themselves do not resolve the low soil fertility problem Family labor
ity of at Tied ridges by
65
availability constrains the amount of tied ridging construction It apshypears from the on-farm trials and the whole-farm modeling results that all three technologies (including the MRT) would need to be introduced togetherbefore economic incentive and risk levels are adequate for technology adoption Introducing the technologies together would alleviate the soil fertiltty soil water and labor constraints and provide high economic incentives at levels of risk that would be attractive to farmers However as previously discussed farmers adopt technologies sequentially and not as a package
An option is to wait for the research community to develop new techshynologies that will individually provide a sufficient economic incentive at a level of risk that is attractive to farmers Another option is to develop support programs that will enable farmers to sequentially adopt the available technologies en route to total package adoption The review of the constraints to cereal production and the review of the available and future technologies for the WASAT (Chapters IV and V) point out that such individual technologies will not be available in the short run and will probably not be available in the intermediate run (10-15 years) The pressing problems of the WASAT require more immediate solutions which can only be brought about by support programs to facilitate the adoption of the available technologies If the package of available technologies is introshyduced without special government programs farmers are expected to adoptthe technologies in the sequence given for each recommendation domain as outlined in Chapter V (Table 5) Adoption by recommendation domain would vary with those in the low risk aversehigh wealth categories adopting the technologies first groups such asSome the high risk averselow wealth old settlement farmers may never adopt any of the technologies
Implementation of a support program to increase the present cereal production in the WASAT would include
a) credit programs for the cash outlays required by farmers for fershytilizer and animal traction
b) farm mnagement information especially on efficient utilization of animal traction and fertilizer from the extension service
c) development of the input and product markets
thrustA main of the support program would be to select the technologieswithin each recommendation dolvin that farmers would most likely adopt
described Ta|IlAfirst (as in 5) and provide the economic incentives and pre-conditions for farmers to adopt the technology Once farmers become acquainted with the technology the next technology would be supported in a similar manner and so on until the total technology package was adoptedAppropriate economic incentives and pre-conditions would ensure that techshynology adoption proceeded as quickly as possible so that all the farmers could adopt the total package in the shortest possible time
66
To facilitate new-technology introduction some of the potential typesof research and extension institutional support programs are mentioned below
Priorities for Extension and Local Governments
The highest priorities for extension and local government agencies involve focusing on the soil fertilitywater retention technologies of manshyual tied ridging diguettes and dikes complex fertilizers animal traction and the mechanical ridge tier These technologies should be put forward on demonstration fields (using local farmer participation where appropriate) individually and as packages for each of the recommendation domains
There is a role for local government agencies in the construction and maintenance of large dikes and barriers to regulate the speed of rainfall runoff at the village level Within each region individual households would either construct tied ridges andor diguettes--whichever is the most appropriate for the area Where diguettes are used assistance from local government agencies may be required for correct contour placement
A critical role will have to be undertaken by extension agencies to ensure that the appropriate preconditions exist for animal traction adopshytion The preconditions of shorter learning curves for both the farmer and draft animals and higher utilization rates can be facilitated by animal traction programs Extension agencies could be involved in training farmshyers (technical operation and animal maintenance) and in the training of draft animals until a draft animal market develops Shortening the learnshying curve will itseli increase utilization rates which can be further increased by an appropriate complement of implements including the mechanshyical ridge tier
Priorities for On-Farm Testing
The prototype IITA mechanical ridge tier requires further modificashytions at the engineering level to reduce its weight and awkwardness and increase its adaptability for hook-up with a wide range of cultivatorplow equipment (Nagy et al 1986a) Other possibilities include an automatic tripping device and even new design concepts which need to be rigorously field tested with farmer participation As modifications and new design concepts are developed they must be made available to the extension system and local manufacturers and provisions made for information feedback to the on-farm testing agencies The mechanical ridge tier is an implement that can be made locally and every attempt by the local extension agencies to provide prototype copies to local manufacturers should be undertaken Locally-made mechanical ridge tiers enable location-specific adaptations arising from a local manufacturerfarmer interchange
Priorities also include further on-farm testing of diguettes and of modifications of diguettes and barriers Further on-farm testing across the WASAT of raw and acidulated rock phosphate from all the major rock
67
phosphate deposits in the WASAT is required to evaluate the agronomic and economic feasibility of this technology
Priorities for Experimental Research Stations
On-station crop improvement programs require a change in the presentemphasis on screening and selection under high management conditions--manshyagement conditions much higher than can be provided by WASAT farmers in the intermediate run Thus crop improvement programs in the WASAT should conshycentrate on developing varieties that show stability over time and exhibit a response curve that exploits moderate management levels Selection must be focused on resistance to important pests and diseases as well as producshytion superiority under varying levels of soil productivity and available soil moisture--all of which contribute to production stability This change in crop development goals requires new screening and selection proshycedures and an increased interdisciplinary effort between on-station and on-farm research
The designing of labor-saving devices for fertilizer applicationplanting and other field operations should be further studied for both manual and animal traction farmers where applicable Research on water retention methods other than tied ridges or diguettes is required for those areas where these two technologies are not effective especially on the sandier soils characterizing much of the Sahelo-Sudanian zone
CHAPTER VII
SUMMARY
Whole-farm modeling was critical in identifying the potential effect of new technologies and in evaluating the seasonal labor bottleneck As onshyfarm trials produce more technologies that pass the yield and profit criteria whole farm modeling analysis will become increasingly important to identify the interactions of technology components and estimate their potenshytial impact at the farm level
A major contribution of the Purdue farming systems research project was not the identification of the individual constraints but rather a study of their interconnected nature It is necessary for farming systems research projects to concentrate on the well-known synergistic nature of agricultural inputs and not be satisfied with minimum cost input changes which also have minimal effects on yields or profits
The seasonal labor constraint has been stressed as the principal barshyrier to agricultural development in the WASAT and in other semi-arid areas in Africa However a more agronomic orientation to the analysis of the water requirement and 1oil fertility problems was necessary The combined effect of improved water retention increases in soil fertility and overshycoming the seasonal labor bottleneck with the mechanical tied ridger had a substantial impact on farm income Since the combined effects are much larger than the individual effects it is unfortuuiLte that farmers tend to adopt one input at a ime Governmental support of the combined practices appears to be necessary to facilitate their combined introduction
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Eicher Carl K 1983 West Africas agrarian crisis Paper prepared for the fifth bi-annual conference of the West African Association of Agricultural Economists Abidjan Ivory Coast
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Fussell L K and P G Serafini 1985 Crop associations in the semishyarid tropics of West Africa In Appropriate technologies for farmers in semi-arid West Africa H W Ohm and J G Nagy (eds) Internashytional Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Gebisa Ejeta 1986 Breeding sorghum hybrids for irrigated and rainfed conditions in the Sudan Proceedings International drought symposium on food grain production in the semi-arid regions of Sub-Saharan Africa Nairobi Kenya
Ghodake R D and J B Hardaker 1981 Whole-farm modeling for assessshyment of dryland technology International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRlSAT) Patancheru Andhra Pradesh India
Hardaker J Brian Jock R Anderson and John L Dillon 1984 Perspecshytives on assessing the impacts of improved agricultural technologies in developing countries Australian Journal of Agricultural Economics 2887-108
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Jaeger W K 1983 Animal traction and resource productivity Evidence from Upper Volta Paper presented at the third annual farming systems research symposium Kansas State University Manhattan Kansas
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Kang B T C F Wilson and T L Lawson 1984 Alley cropping A stable alternative to shifting cultivation International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) Ibadan Nigeria
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Lang M G R P Cantrell H W Ohm and S Sawadogo 1984 FSUSAFGRAD 1983 Annual Report International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
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McCarl B A 1982 REPFARM Design calculation and interpretation ofthe linear programming model Station Bulletin No 385 AgriculturalExperiment Station Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
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McNamara R S 1985 The challenges for sub-Saharan Africa Sir John Crawford Memorial Lecture November 1 Consultative Group on Internashytional Agricultural Research Washington DC
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77
APPENDIX 1
Administrative Report
In December 1978 Purdu University was awarded a two year contract with the US Agency for International Development to establish and operate a farming systems research unit in Burkina Faso as one of the components of the Semi-Arid Food Grain Research and Development Program (SAFGRAD)
This contract AFR-C-1472 had several mandates
1 Analyze small farm conditions and application of new technologies to those conditions
2 Formulate strategies regarding development and application of small farm relevant technology
3 Develop recommendations regarding physical research priorities and
4 Design help organize and analyze farmer field trials and studies as a means of performing the above
After several extensions the contract was amended in 1985 to reflect an additional set of objectives
1 Complete the transfer of the farming systems research methodology and techniques gained under this contract to national research organizashytions in the SAFGRAD countries
2 Finalize analysis of empirical research results
3 Finalize and publish guidelines for the methodological analytical or organizational and operational conduct of FSR in the SAFGRAD region
4 In conjunction with the SAFGRAD coordination office complete the groundwork for a West African regional FSR network
The termination of the project occurred on June 30 1986 Field activities in Burkina Faso were maintained through March 31 1986
The body of this report provides a description of the achievements of the project in terms of its mandate This section is the administrative report covering the implementation of this contrast
Contractor staff were provided logistic support by USAID in accordance with local AID procedures this included housing and utilities furniture household equipment and medical facilities to our long term staff In addition two vehicles were provided to our team for the duration of the project These vehicles were financed outside our contract but from SAFGRAD project funds
Initially the Purdue University team comprising an agricultural economist agronomist and rural sociologist were to be provided office
78
space at the Kamboinse Research station outside the city limits of Ouagadougou At the onset the FSU office was established in Ouagadougou then moved to Kamboinse however because the vehicles provided were not very reliable and transportation problems for local hire staff created major problems the office was relocated in Ouagadougou in agreement with SAFGRAD and USAID The FSU team continued to closely work with the ICRISAT and IITA teams who had responsibility for other resetrch components of the SAFGRAD program
At Purdue University a steering committee composed of the departments heads of Agronomy Agricultural Economics and SociologyAnthropology was established to guide activities of the FSU It frequently met to evaluate progress discuss issues relevant to the project and to formulate overall strategy for achieving project objectives
Technical coordination and backstopping for the project was maintained on the Purdue campus during the entire project period Dr Wilford H Morris provided this service from 1978 to June 1983 and Dr John H Sanders from July 1983 to termination On-campus administrative and logistic support was provided by the Office of International Programs in Agriculture under the directorship of T Kelley White and D Woods Thomas Other administrative staff responsible for project activities were Dr James L Collom associate director IPIA and Mrs Katy Ibrahim administrative assistant for the FSU project
In addition Dr Thomas was a participant of the SAFGRAD Technical Advisory Committee (TAG) and Consultative Committee (CC) of the SAFGRAD which met yearly in Burkina Faso These committees were a channel for review of all SAFGRAD activities in WestCentral Africa
During the seven and a half years the FSU project existed a total of nine long-term staff were on site in Burkina Faso for a total of 225 person months (PM)
Paul Christensen agronomist acting chief-of-party February 1979 to December 1981 - 33 PM
Richard Swanson rural sociologist October 1979 to July 1983 - 46 PM
Ram Singh economist and chief of party April 1979 to Macch 1981 - 24 PM
William Jaeger economistcomputer analyst December 1981 to June 1983 - 19 PM
Ronald Cantrell agronomistchief of party February 1982 to January 1984 - 23 PM
Mahlon Lang economist February 1982 to April 1984 - 26 PM
Herbert Ohm agronomistchief of party August 1983 to August 1985 -24 PM
Christopher Pardy economistcomputer analyst December 1983 to Tune 1983 - 16 PM
79
Joseph Nagy economistchief of party July 1984 to April 1985 14-
PM
In addition several short-term technical staff and consultants traveled to Burkina Faso for a total of 185 PM They are as follows
In 979 Kenneth Jones computer specialist at Purdue spent 50 PM to assist our in-country staff in organizing the data management That same year Ms Annie Buryer a sociologist spent 3 months in the field assisting our rural sociologist in setting up the village questionnaires In 1980 Herbert Butler rural sociologist spent 50 PM assisting in the analysis of the collected research dava In 1981 Stan Cohen computer specialist and agricultural economist spent 4 PM in the analysis of socio-economic data Len Malczynski computer specialist also spent 75 PM in the field in organizing the data Iandiing systems Anne-Marie Kaylen MS candidate in the Department of Agricultural Economics spent eight 1PM in the field to collect data for her thesis
Wilford H Morris technical coordinator for the FSU spent 200 PM in the field to provide support to our in-country team
In 1983 Jon Brandt agricultural economist spent 50 PM in Burkina Faso to assist Kirnseyinga Sawadogo in the collection of data for his PhD Thesis In 1984 Charles Rhykerd agronomist and soil specialist spent 75 PM oking with our staff in collecting soil samples and providing agronomLc support to our staff John Sanders as on-campus technical coordinator spent a total of 100 PM in the field working -ith the field economists
Purdue administrative staff also traveled to Burkina Faso during the existence of this project for a total of 45 person months
PM
T Kelley White acting director IPA 50 Paul Farris Head Agricultural Economics Dept 25 D Woods Thomas Director IPIA 150 Katy Ibrahim Administrative Assistant FSU 100 John Sanders Technical Coordinator 75 James L Collom Associate Director IPIA 50
Purdue University also conducted an internal evaluation of project activities in Burkina Faso in 1984 Members of the team who spent one week in-country were
Bernard Liska Dean School of Agricul-ire William Dobson Head Agricultural Economics Department Marvin Phillips Head Agronomy Department D Woods Thomas Director and Associate Dean International Programs in Agriculture
Sawadogo Sibiri participated in the On-Farm Experimentation Workshop University of Harare Zimbabwe (co-sponsored with CIMMYT) February 6-24
80
1984 the East Africa Agricultural Economics Program CIMMYT Nairobi Kenya October 27 to November 6 and in the evaluation of FSR programs with ACPOs in Senegal February 24 to March 1
Three Burkinabe staff enrolled at Purdue University for additional long-term training
Paul Compaore Agricultural Economics MS 1983-1985 Baya Toe Agricultural Economics MS 1983-1985 Kimseyinga Savadogo Agricultural Economics PhD 1979-1986
All have returned to Burkina Faso Dr Savadogo as a professor at the University of Ouagadougou Paul Compaore and Baya Toe are working in the Burkinabe Ministry of Agriculture
All of these educational activities contributed significantly to quality and dependable data collection and team spirit In addition these --aining activities were a significant factor in the transfer of host country technical and research staff to the national agricultural research program IBRAZ
Training for US graduate students was also made possible throughthis project Ms Anne-Marie Kaylen spent eight months in the field colshylecting data for her MS thesis in agricultural economics Also three graduate students funded under the PurdueINTSORMIL project spent eight months each in Burkina Faso working with our staff in support of the project while collecting data for their field research These were Michael Roth PhD Kimseyinga Savadogo PhD and Ann Bukowski MS Under FSU auspices William Jaeger developed his PhD dissertation on the economics of animal traction in Burkina Faso
The Farming Systems Unit project cooperated in the conduct of two regional workshops In September 1983 in cooperation with ICRISAT and IRAT a regional workshop on farmers participation in the development and evaluation of technology was held in Ouagadougou The proceedings of this workshop were published by che International Develpoment Research Centre In April 1985 the FSU in conjunction with the SAFGRAD Coordination Office conducted a workshop on technologies appropriate for farmers in semi-arid West Africa The proceedings of this workshop (in English and French) were distributed widely by the Office of International Programs in Agriculture
Thirty-six research-based technical papers were written and disshytributed under FSU auspices (See Appendix 2 for a listing of these publications)
The Farming Systems Unit project was not without administrative andor logistical problems Included were such things as unavoidable delays in transfer of funds to the field inadequacy of in-country transportation arrangements imperfection in project design establishing FSU relationshipwith national agricultural institutions and international development assistance organizations internal and international political events and the lack of ex-ante long-term contractual and funding commitments Excellent cooperation among the US national regional and international organizations involved in the program made it possible to resolve such issues with minimal impact on project productivity
81
Purdue University is deeply grateful to the OAUSTRC the SAFGRAD and its Consultative and Technical Advisory Committees USAIDOuagadougou AID Washington the government of Burkina Faso ICRISAT IITA and other enshytities for their assistance and cooperation in the conduct of this project Without such the objectives of this ambitious research could not have been attained
82
APPENDIX 2
Publications List
1 FSUSAFGRAD Staff Questionnaire Utilises pour le Etudes Sur les Systems de Production Agricoles Dans Des Villages Echantillons de Haute Volta Farming Systems Unit Project International Programs inAgriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana January 1980
2 Saunders M 0 Farming Systems Research Unit Working papers (1)Agriculture in Upper Volta The Institutional Framework (2) LocalEcology Population and Ethnic Groups in Upper Volta and (3) TheMossi Farming Systems in Upper Volta International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1980
3 Bruyer A Towards a Use of Survey Materials Report on Zone of Zorgho Farming Systems Unit Project International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana May 1980
4 Christensen P J Observations on the Major Classification of Field Trials Used in Farming Systems Research Farming Systems Unit Project International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana January 1981
5 Christensen P J Rock Phosphate Fertilizer in Upper Volta Part 1 Preliminary Report on Policy Implications of Cereal YieldCharacteristics Farming Systems Unit Project International Programsin Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana April 1981
6 Christensen P J and R A Swanson SAFGRADFSU 1981 Research Programs Farfling Systems Unit Project International Programs inAgriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana April 1981
7 Cohen S Costs and Returns of Household Crop Production NedogoUpper Volta Department of Agricultural Economics Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana September 1982
8 Lang M R Cantrell and J IfSanirs Identifying Constraints and Evaluating New Techology in the Purdue Farming Systems Project in Upper Volta in C B Flora (ed) Animals in the Farming SystemKansas State University Manhattan Kansas pp 184-206 1984
9 Jaeger W K Animal Traction and Resource Productivity Evidence from Upper Volta in C B Flora (ed) Animals in the Farming ystem ibid pp 431-460 1984
10 Singh R D E W Kehrberg and W H M Morris Small FarmProduction Systems ii Upper Volta Descriptive and Productive Function Analysis Experiment Station Bulletin Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1984
11 Lang M G and 24 Roth Risk Perceptions and Risk Management byFarmers in Burkina F-aso Paper presented at the Annual FarmingSystems Conference at Kansas State University in 1984
83
12 Rhykerd C L Constraints and Research Needs for Livestock Production in Upper Volta International Programs in AgriculturePurdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1984
13 Sanders J H The Evolution of Farming Systems Research Towards Where International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1984
14 Roth M and J H Sanders An Economic Evaluation of AgriculturalTechnologies and Implications for Development Strategies in Burkina Faso International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana First presented at the Annual Farming SystemsConference at Kansas State University in 1984
15 Lang M G and R C Cantrell Accenting the Farmers Role Purdue Farming Systems Unit in P Matlon R Cantrell D King and M Benoit-Cattin (edited) Coming Full Circle Farmers Participation inthe Development of Technology International Developmernt Research Center Ottawa Canada pp 63-70 1984
16 Lang M H Ohm and R Cantrell Adaptability Analysis of Farmer-Managed Trials in Farming Systems Research International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1985
17 Lang M G Agricultural Production and Marketing Activities of Women in Burkina Faso International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1985
18 Lang M G Crop and Livestock Marketing Patterns in Burkina FasoInternational Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1985
19 Pardy C R Cereal Sales Behavior Among Farm Households in FourVillages in Burkina Faso International Programs i- AgriculturePurdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1985
20 Nagy J G and H W Ohm Economic Analysis of Tied Ridges and Fertilization in Farmer-Managed Sorghum Trials in Burkina Faso Paperpresented at the International Conference of AgricultLal Economists Malaga Spain 1985
21 Nagy J G L L Ames and H W Ohm Tecchnology Evaluation PilicyChange and Farmer Adoption in Burkina Fa Paper presented at the Farming Systems Symposium Kansas State University Manhattan Kansas 1985
22 Schaber L A Literature Review of Soil Fertility in the West Africa Semi-Arid Tropics (WASAT) International Programs in AgriculturePurdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1985
23 Sanders J H J G Nagy and B Shapiro Developing and EvaluatingNew Agricultural Technology for the Sahel A Case Study in Burkina Faso Submitted to Economic Development and Cultural Change 1985
84
24 Ohm H W and J G Nagy (Editcrs) Appropriate Technologies for Farmers in Semi-Arid West Africa International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1985 359 pages (also available in French)
25 Roth M P Abbott J Sanders and L McKinzie An Application of Whole-Farm Modelling to New Technology Evaluation Central Mossi Plateau Burkina Faso International Programs in Agriculture Purdue bniversity West Lafayette Indiana 1986
26 Diallo N N and J C Nagy Burkini Faso Access and Control of Resources in the Farming Systems Recent Legal Political and Socio-Economic Changes Paper presented at the Conference on Gender Issues in Farming Systems Research and Extension Gainesville Florida February 1986
27 Nagy J C and L L Ames Evaluation of New Technologies in Burkina Faso Using Whole Farm Modelling Paper presented at the Annual Conference of American Agricultural Economists Reno Nevada 1986
28 Sanders J H and B Shapiro Agricultural Technology Development in Burkina Faso in Chapter 12 of Y Moses (ed) Proceedings African Agricultural Develompent Conference Technoloiy Ecology and Society California State Polytechnic Institute Pomona California 1986
29 Nagy J G H W Ohm L L Ames and L D Schaber Analysis of IITASAFGRAD Mechanical Ridge Tier International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1986
30 Nagy J G H W Ohm and S Sawadogo Burkina Faso A Case Study of the Purdue UniversitySAFGRAD Farming Systems Project forthcoming in the Florida Farming Systems Project Case Studies Series 1986
31 Ames L L A Preliminary Report on the Evaluation of New Technologies in Burkina Faso International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1986
32 Annual Report (English) 1979
33 Annual Report (English) 1980
34 Annual Report (English) 1982
35 Annual Report (English amp French) 1983
36 Annual Report (English amp French) 1984
37 Annual Report (English) 1985
38 End of Project Report 1986
85
Theses List
1 Kaylen A M Current Farming Conditions in Nedogo and Digre Upper Volta MS Thesis Department of Agricultural Economics Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana August 1982
2 Jaeger W K Agricultural Mechanization The Economics of Animal Traction in Burkina Faso Stanford University unpublished PhD thesis 1984 To be published as a book by Westview Press
3 Bukowski AS Performance of Grain Markets in Selected Areas of Burkina Faso MS Thesis Department of Agricultural Economics Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana May 1986 Utilized some of the data and research support from the FSU project in Upper Volta but was directly supported by INTSORMIL
4 Roth M An Econoimc Evaluation of Agricultural Policy in Burkina Faso West Africa A Sectoral Modeling Approach unpublished PhD dissertation Department of Agricultural Economics Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana May 1986 Utilized some of the data and research support from the FSU project in Upper Volta but was directly supported by INTSORMIL
5 Savadogo K An Analysis of the Economic and Socio-Demographic Determinants (E Household Food Consumption in Ouagaodugou Burkina Faso unpublished PhD dissertation Department of Agricultural Economics Purdvr University West Lafayette Indiana 1986
CEREAL TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT - WEST AFRICAN4 SEMI-ARID TROPICS A FARMING SYSTEMS PERSPECTIVE
i Foreword
I INTRODUCTION
II THE PURDUE UNIVERSITY FARMING SYSTEMS UNIT
III FARMING SYSTEMS METHODOLOGY IN THE WEST AFRICAN SEMI-ARID TROPICS A Introduction B Describing Farmers Environments Production Systems and Objectives
The Base Line Study Stage C Designing and Implementing On-Farm Trials D Evaluation of On-Farm Technology Performance E Micro vs Macro Approaches to Farming Systems F Which Agencies Should Undertake the On-Farm Testing G Conclusions
IV PRODUCTION CONSTRAINTS OF THE WASAT FARMING SYSTEMS
V TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT TO INCREASE CEREAL PRODUCTION IN THE WASAT A Introduction B Proposed Technologies for the WASAT
1 Soil FertilityWater Retention Technologies - Tied Ridges
- DiguettesDikes - Complex Chemical Fertilizers - Indigenous Rock Phosphate
- Animal Manure and Composting - Mulch - PlowingGreen Manuring
2 Labor Saving Technologies - Animal Tcaction - Mechanical Ridge Tier - Herbicides
3 Improved Varietal Research 4 Crop Associations
C Sequencing of Technologies and Farm Management Practices in the WASAT 1 Technologies for the Present Farming System 2 Technologies for Future Farming System
VI POLICY IMPLICATIONS AND FUTURE AVENUES FOP RESEARCH AND EXTENSION
VII SUMMARY
VIII APENDICES 1 Administrative Report 2 Publications List
LIST OF TABLES
Table Page
1 Present technical and economic feasibility and time frame of proposed technologies and farm management practices for the WASAT
38
2 Economic analysis of farmer-managed trials of sorghum with fertilizer and tied ridges Nedogo and Diapangou 1981 and 1984
43 - a
3 Whole farm modeling analysis of tied ridging with donkey traction Central Plateau Burkina Faso
45
4 Whole farm modeling analysis of a tied ridging fertilization 51 technology combination with donkey traction Central Plateau Burkina Faso
5 Recommendition domains and likely sequential adoption patterns of available technologies in the WASAT
57
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure Page
1 West African Sahelian and Sudanian zones 2
2 FSU research sites and climatic zones Burkina Faso 4
3 Stages of the research process 15
6 Schematic view of farming systems 17
5 Flow chart for new technology evaluation in farm trials 19
6 The IITASAFGRAD mechanical ridge tier 50
LIST OF ACRONYMS
ANOVA Analysis of Variance CIAT Centro Internacional 6e Agricultura Tropical CIMMYT Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maiz y Trigo FCFA Franc Communaut6 Financire Africaine FSR Farming Systems Research FSSP Farming Systems Support Project FSU Purdue UniversitySAFGRAD Farming Systems Unit IARC International Agricultural Research Center IBRAZ Institut Burkinabamp de Recherches Agronomiques et Zootechniques ICARDA International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas ICRISAT International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid
Tropics iFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development IFDC International Fertilizer Development Center IITA International Institute of Tropical Agriculture ILRAD International Livestock Research and Development Program INTSORMIL International SorghumMillet Program IPIA International Programs in Agriculture (Purdue University) IRAT Institut de Recherches Agronomiques Tropicales et des Cultures
Vivri~res IRRI International Rice Research Center MRT Mechanical Ridge Tier NARC National Agriculture Research Center OAU Orgacization of African Unity PCV Peace Corps Volunteer SAFGRAD Semi-Arid Food Grain Research and Development Program USAID United States Agency for International Development WASAT West African Semi-Arid Tropics
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
Food production and consumption trends in the Third World over the past two decades have shifted world attention from Asia to Sub-Saharan Africa (Paulino and Mellor 1984) The Green Revolution in Asia--the increase in rice and wheat yields brought about by improved varieties and an expanded use of fertilizer and other purchased inputs--has greatly increased Asian per capita food production (Pinstrup-Andersen and Hazell 1985) A similar Green Revolution phenomenon however has not yet taken place in sub-Saharan Africa One of the areas of most concern in Sub-Saharan Africa is the geographical region of the West African semi-arid tropics (WASAT) Current food production and population growth trends have led many to adopt a Malthusian perspective about the future of the WASAT
The countries of the WASAT include Senegal Gambia Burkina Faso the southern portions of Mauritania Mali Niger and Chad and the northern portions of Ghana Benin Ni eria and Cameroon (Norman et al 1981) Troll (1966) defines semi-ard tropics as regions where precipitation exceeds potential evapotranspiration for 2 to 7 months of the year Figure I delineates the principal climatic zones in the WASAT based on annual rainfall levels (09 probability isohyets of 1931-60 rainfall data)
The WASAT is one of the poorest regions in the world with 1984 per capita yearly incomes for countries in the area ranging between $US 80 and $US 300 (McNamara 1985) The region as a whole has balance of trade and balance of payments problems The economies depend heavily on foreign aid borrowing and worker remittances People (labor) are one of the biggest exports from the region--an estimated 25 of the labor force of Burkina Faso works in neighboring non-WASAT areas (World Bank 1981) The region exhibits a bottom-heavy age pyramid with country population growth rates ranging between 25 to 30 per ear and a fertility rate averaging 65 children per adult female The growth in per capita food production (1971shy1984) for the region as a whole is negative while levels of food imports (largely from donor agencies) have increased dramatically over the last 25 years (McNamara 1985 Paulino and Mellor 1984)
The declining food production per capita is associated with the conshytinuing droughts of the 1968-73 and 1976-80 periods (Nicholson 1982) and the most recent 1984 drought Other factors such as inadequate economic incentives for farmers and the failure to adapt and adopt new agricultural technologies have also been cited as explanations for the failure of food production to accompany population growth
(Adapted from World Bank 1985)200 o0 200
ALGERIA -200
20
MAURITANIAOE
SahLan NLMALI 3XJ50n n6038 0
uda n - ne13A v C e 0L 0
10 GUINEA-BISS1U 00 2 00 GUINEA i S h i and Sud -nia Zones
SIERRA IVORY 0 IERA LEONECOAST
0HNI -
CLIMATIC ZONES AEO1 o0O Zones Rainfall
-- 350 - 30-Sahelo-aian P Sahelo- aian NL50 - 350
Sudanian 600 -800 0Komts 200 400 600 Sudano-Guinean Above 800 K oM lers shy
200 4 00
deg deg20 0 100 o 10c0 deg 20
Figure 1 West African Sahelian and Sudanian Zones
3
Since the WASAT does nLt have the manland pressure of much of Asia and Asia has been successful in rapidly increasing agricultural production in its prime agricultural areas it is useful to look at the resource base in this region The present manland ratios in the WASAT average roughly15 persons per sq km (World Bank 1985) compared with up to 600 persons per sq km in Asia (McNamara 1985) The poorer agricultural resource base of the WASAT however cannot support the high man-land ratio of Asia (Matlon 1985) For example in the older settlement villages of the Central Plateau of Burkina Faso manland ratios are as high as 60 persons per sqkm (World Bank 1985) These high manland ratios relative to the resource base have been causing the breakdown of the traditional bush-fallow farming systems Traditionally the crop area was cultivated for 3 to 5 years and then left idle for a decade or more to restore soil fertility In many of the older settlement villages increased population has meant limited access to new land a shortening of the fallow rotation period and the culshytivation of more marginal land (Norman et al 1982 Dugue 1985) For example in the village (Figure 2)of Nedogo Burkina Faso many fields have been cultivated as long as the farmers can remember (FSUSAFGRAD 1983) Moreover almost all the crop residues are utilized for feed or building materials or else burned further exhausting the fertility of the soil Declinin7 soil fertility in the older settled regions has bei disshyrupting the cereal production systems pushing the cereals into more marshyginal areas and encouraging a substitution of millet for sorghum (Ames 1986)
During the high rainfall period of the fifties and early sixties intensive crop production was further extended into the Sahelo-Sudanian zone (World Bank 1985) With the droughts and increased desertification of the late sixties and seventies many have become concerned with the posshysible interaction of human settlement and further desertification (Nicholson 1982 World Bank 1985) While this debate has not been resolved there is no doubt that the resource base in much of the Sahelo-Sudanian zone has further deteriorated The cereals deficit problem has become increasingly serious
All three phenomena--the disappearing fallow system the failure to incorporate crop residues and the extension of crop cultivation into more marginal agricultural regions--lead to further soil detcrioration in the absence of technological intervention In overpopulated agriculturalregions such as the Central Plateau of Burkina Faso the bush fallow systemis being replaced by a permanent cultivation system characterized by verylow and stagnant cereal yields (Lang et al 1984 see Ruthenberg 1980 for other examples of this dynamics)
Not all the WASAT is overpopulated Rather many of the regions can be characterized as frontier zones For example the eastern region of Burkina Faso (ie Diapangou Figure 2) with man-land ratios of 15 persons
I
oBURKINA FASO I Principal Cities 3 350
FSU Survey Villages Dori
OuaigoyaBangasse
deg 00 1i0
Dissankuy FauF
Bdobo ogo NGourma 800bullDioulasso bulloBE -I -NIN
TOGOBanfora
GHANA CLIMATIC ZONES Zones Rainfall
IVORY COAST Sahelian NLC- 350IVRYCASlSahelo-Sudanian 350 - 600
Sudanian 600 - 800 Sudano-Guinean Above 800
(I) NLC NORTHERN LIMIT OF CULTIVATION (2) ISOHYETS INn
00
Figure 2 FSU research sites and climatic zones of Burkina Faso
5
per sq km has surplus land and follows the bush-fallow system of cultivashytion However even on the frontier as population pressure increases in the next five years a phenomenon similar to what is now taking place on the Central Plateau of Purkina Faso would be expected to occur It is becoming increasingly important to develop land substituting technologies for the overpopulated regions And although labor substituting technolshyogies are presently still very important on the frontier at the present pace of developnnt the frontier zones will confront similar problems to those in the overpopulated regions during the next decade
Given the present cereals crisis in the WASAT it is becoming critical to develop or ad~pt new agricultural technologies which will reverse the Malthusian trends In the mid-sixties before the start ofthe Green Revolution similar Malthusian statements were made about the agricultural potential of the Indian sub-continent However during the late sixties and seventies agricultural regions in Asia with irrigation or regular assured rainfall had the mosc rapid growth rates in technology diffusion ever empirically documented Although the resource endowment in the WASAT is not as great as that of the Punjab and similar Asian regions research reported here will atuempt to show that there is substantial potential for cereal technology development in the WASAT
The technology development process in the Purdue UniversitySAFGRAD Farming Systems Unit Project had two phases The first phase was the development of a methodology to identify the pressing constraints to cereal production increase and the testing out on farmers fields of technology alternatives available from the experiment station and from similar climatic regions in other countries The second stage was the continued evaluation of successful technologies over a sufficiently long time period and in sufficient detail to allow researchers a feeling of reasonable conshyfidence in their recommendations to both experiment station researchers and to the extension service and government officials involved in agricultural development The principle chapters of this report (III and V) are conshycerned with these two phases of the technology development process The basic methodological concepts potentially useful in other WASAT countries from the farming systems research in Burkina Faso are synthesized in Chapter III In the technology evaluation of Chapter V the results of other WASAT agricultural researchers are combined with those of the Purdue UniversitySAFGRAD Farming Systems program to give a more comprehensive evaluation of the present state of cereal technology development in the WASAT The conclusions synthesize the technology evaluation to draw out the implications for agricultural policy and for future extension and research
6
Footnotes
Rainfall averages have declined by 100 to 150 mm per year since the mid
1960s Updated isohyets using 1961-1985 data were not available In depth information on the countries and regions of the WASAT can be obtained from Kowal and Kassam 1978 McNamara 1985 Norman et al 1981 and World Bank 1985
At present there is some scope for migration to lower population denshysity areas with better soils and rainfall within the WASAT since health investments have been made to eradicate river blindness in some of the more fertile valleys (Sanders et al 1986) Several relocation proshygrams have already been undertakca in Burkina Faso (McMillan 1979) Relocation programs are costly and represent a short to intermediate solution for the WASAI Also people are reluctant to relocate and leave family friends and familar surroundings
CHAPTER II
THE PURDUE SAFGRAD FARMING SYSTEMS UNIT
The Purdue University Farming Systems Unit (FSU) funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) was part of the Semi-Arid Food Grain Research and Development Project (SAFGRAD) from December 1978 to June 1986 SAFGRAD is a regional research coordinating program implemented by the Coordination Office of the Scientific Technical and Research Commission of the Organization of African Unity (OAUSTRC) The SAFGRAD project works in cooperation with 28 sub-Saharan member countries with the coordination office located in Ouagadougou Burkina Faso The principal objective of the SAFGRAD project is to coordinate and strengthen programs in the semi-arid regions of sub-Saharan Africa that are involved in improving sorghum maize millet cowpea and groundnut yields
In the West African Semi-Arid Tropics (WASAT) SAFGRAD coordinates a research and pre-extension program The regional on-station component research is headquartered at the Central Experiment Station at Kamboinse in Burkina Faso and undertaken by IITA and ICRISAT Another component of SAFGRAD in the WASAT is the Accelerated Crops Production Officers (ACPO) program which conducts regional pre-extension and demonstration trials An integral part of the overall program is the farming systems unit which provides linkages between on-station research and the ACPOextension proshygrams The research and extension personnel of SAFGRAD (including the FSR unit) meet yearly to submit an annual report to a Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) The TAC reviews the research programs and submits the results and recommendations to the Consultative Committee (CC) which is a management and policy committee for SAFGRAD The results are passed on to host country research and extension institutions
Within the SAFGRAD framework farming systems research for Burkina Faso was provided by Purdue University for seven years up to June 1986 In the seventies farming systems methodology was still in its infancy Its mandate included the development of methodological guidelines that could be implemented in host country national and SAFGRAD sponsored farming systems programs The specific objectives of FSU were as follows
1 to identify the principle constraints to increased food producshytion
2 to identify technologies appropriate for farmers which could overshycome the production constraints
3 to develop and implement a multidisciplinary research method which could guide production technology and production research to directly address these production constraints
8
4 to identify the elements of that method which could be implemented in national farming systems research programs and
5 to train host country personnel to assume increasing responsibilshyity in their contribution to research
During the life of the FSU program agronomic and socio-economic research was conducted at the on-farm level in five villages (Figure 2) The pecific operational procedures and evolution of the FSU program are reported in Nagy et al 1986b The agronomic and soci-economic field campaign findings of the FSU program are presented in FSU Annual Reports and other FSU publications
In the final year of the contract the FSU program completed the transfer of its in-country taff arid program to tie national agricultural research institution of Burkina Faso (IBRAZ) FSU also worked with the IFAD supported SAFGRAD farming systems personnel aho backstop the national farming systems programs in Butkina Faso and Benin Through regional symshyposia and consultation the methodology and results were made available to other SAFOPAD countries as well Details of the program transfer and field staff training component of objective 5 are reported in the 1985 FSU Annual Report (Nagy and Ohm 1986)
CHAPTER III
FARMING SYSTEMS METHODOLOGY IN THE WEST AFRICAN SEMI-ARID TROPICS (WASAT)
Introduction
The basic concept of farming systems research is that the research system could function more efficiently if more information on the conshystraints which prevent farmers from improving their well-being was obtained at an earlier stage of the research development process than is common in the developing countries Farm-level constraints can be identified with both surveys and on-farm trials A further extension is to supplement the on-farm trials with whole-farm modeling This chapter will be concerned with all three approaches
In developed countries the two-way linkages of communication between farmers and agricultural scientists function better than in the WASAT due to higher educational levels of the farmers better agricultural informashytion systems and financial mechanisms in developed countries which reward the agricultural research establishments and individual scientists for their contributions to resolving farm-level production problems Farming systems esearch can provide an alternative communication linkage which does not require advancements in general education or major changes in the institutional orientation of national research systems
The clientele of Farming Systems Research will depend upon the instishytutional setting and the stage of development of the technology In the initial phases of the agricultural development process as in the WASAT the most important directional flow of information is to the researchers for several reasons First farming systems even in low input agriculshyture are very complex with many systems interactions Farmers have multiple objectives and constraints and these can vary in importance and evolve over time and even in response to the conditions of the production season (Norman 1982)
Agricultural scientists in developing countries often underinvest in understanding these complex systems and farmers objectives before beginshyning research Further they may not adequately respond to knowledge which is available When farmers do not adopt the technologies produced on the experiment station and recommended to them the initial reaction of agricultural scientists in developing countries is often that the problem of non-adoption is with the farmers the extension service or national economic policies rather than with the technologies themselves
Technology development requires a thorough understanding of the scienshytific concepts applied on the experiment station plus a multi-disciplinary approach to understanding the complexity of the farmers environment farmshying systems and decision-making process The most fundamental difference between the experiment station and farmers fields is the necessary shift
10
from component parts of new technologies as produced on the experiment station to systems with impor ant interactions such as are characteristic of farmers production systems
Farming Systems Research helps to overcome these differences by nashybling agricultural scientists to improve their understanding of the comshyplexity of the farmers systems and thereby become more efficient at idenshytifying and resolving the research problems involved in overcoming farmers constraints Two desired final products are a more efficient agricultural research system and an increase in mutual comprehension between farmers and researchers Another product is the facilitation of adoption of new sysshytems of agricultural technology so that these systems can be more rapidly incorporated into the testing and diffusion program of the extension servshyice
The principal stages in farming systems research can be identified by responding to the following questions
a) What do you do first to describe the farmers production systems How much description is enough
b) How do you plan and organize on-farm trials When do you do it What are the differences between experiment station and on-farm trials
c) How do you analyze and supplement the data coming out of the onshyfarm trials What are the relevant questions to be answered about new technology performance on farms
d) At some point in technology development outside factors (exogenous variables) such as economic policy or the further development of input production or distribution capacity such as a fertilizer marketing system improved credit or a seed industry may be constraining technology introduction How does FSR set up its own boundaries while still maximizing its effectiveness in providing relevant information to facilitate the production of new technologies
e) Who should do the farming systems research Presently International Agricultural Research Centers spend an estimated 10 to 15 million dollars annually on FSR (Anderson and Dillon 1985 p 1)
The following sections of the paper will attempt to address these speshycific questions on farming systems methodology Clearly there will be some biases from the experiences of the Farming Systems Unit in Burkina Faso and the otber FSR experiences of the authors These eperiences will be utilized as illustrations
11
Describing Farmers Environments Production Systems and Objectives The Baseline Study Stage
If the principal objective of tarming systems research is to improve the understanding of agricultural scientists about farm-level conditions then this data-collection or description process must begin with them They help to define the research problems and objectives of the fieldwork and to understand the particular target group of farmers Agricultural scientists need to be involved in farm-level research design in order to provide more information and to evaluate the accuracy of their hypotheses about farmer conditions and decision-making
The utilization of baseline studies for developing research priorities requires the identification and ranking of the principle conshystraints to increased output of the commodities studied This is not a simple process since there will be a strong bias from the individual disshyciplines of the researchers in the definition of the farm-level constraints Breeders will identify varietal characteristics for overcomshying specific yield constraints pathologists diseases economists will point out particular policies or markets which reduce the profitability of specific new technologies Hence a multi-disciplinary approach to the definition of constraints will be necessary from the beginning of the research design process Some investment by researchers in the tnderstandshying of other disciplines will also be necessary
Useful baseline research has included the economic quantification of production losses from various insects and diseases This information helped confirm the research strategies of resistance breeding for field beans at CIAT (Sanders 1984 Sanders and Lynam 1982) Similarly in Burkina Faso the initial anthropological descriptions of faring systems (M Saunders 1980) and the economic analysis of farmers objectives and seasonal labor constraints helped provide orientation for agricultural researchers in the farm trials (Lang et al 1984)
An important issue within this baseline stage is that it is extremely easy to overinvest in data collection and descriptive surveys Moreover much of the literature on farming systems puts an excessive emphasis on baseline data collection so that the research problem identification hyposhytheses analytical methodologies and even literature reviews are neglected The frequent consequence is the amassing of large quantities of data which are only partially analyzed Even with analysis much of the data collection traditionally undertaken at this stage of FSR has resulted in interesting descriptions of little relevance to researchers in reshydefining their research priorities
There are several methods for avoiding the pitfalls of random and largely irrelevant data collection The first is an extension of a method presently utilized by many agricultural scientists to identify for themshyselves the important constraints in farmers fields This involves their going into the field to see farm-level problems in their disciplinary
12
3 area A simple extension is to make these field trips multi-disciplinary and to involve some pre-trip discussion and mutual definition of field objectives If farm-level interviewing remains unstructured the datashyamassing problem can be avoided Multi-disciplinary collaboration is begun and can bd continued in the development of a report synthesizing the field observations Often these initial trips or sondeos have led to more formal multi-disciplinary questionnaire development and surveying in a second stage Clearly with the involvement of several disciplines the demand for data can increase exponentially
To more rapidly interest the agricultural scientists a different technique is suggested At any given time agricultural scientists genershyally have their own ideas of what will work on farmers fields These ideas can come directly from their own experiments from observations of farmers in other regions or from Vhe literature The suggestion here is to move rapidly into on-farm trials This will then give a defined frameshywork for supplementing on-farm trials with diagnostic surveys which have well-defined objectives ie to better evaluate specific socio-economic issues involved in introducing these new technologies tested on the farmshyers fields into the farmers production system
In these baseline surveys of the functioning of the farm and household systems at the beginning of an FSR project the anthropologists and sociologists have often made outstanding contributions to our understanding (M Saunders 1980 Reeves and Frankenberger 1982) When these surveys by the social scientists have been integrated with the research objectives of agricultural scientists their utility has been further increased It is recommended that a farming systems project begin with baseline surveys of farm and household conditions in each major target area preferably undershytaken by an anthropologist (also see Simmonds 1984 p 74) These baseshyline studies and a commencement of on-farm trials in the first production season are suggested as the appropriate way to begin farming systems reshysearch in the WASAT
The principal emphasis here is on moving rapidly to on-farm trials with supplementary analysis to provide understanding of the potential role of the new technologies in the whole farm system The methodology for this type of evaluation will be explained in detail in the fourth section on Evaluation As this type of on-farm testing and modeling analysis is being undertaken further diagnostic surveys are often useful to complement the principal investigation of the on-farm trials and farm modeling An exshyample in the Burkina Faso FSU program after three to five years of on-farm testing in different villages was a survey to evaluate adoption by parshyticipant and non-participant farmers of the new technologies tested
Designing and Implementing On-Farm Trials
There are two central issues in the implementation of on-farm trials First multi-disciplinary collaboratin is essential especially between agricultural scienmtists and economists Secondly the research objectives
13
of the experiment station and on-farm trials are different hence the organization design and arnalysis of the on-farm trials are different from those on the experiment station
True multi-disciplinary collaboration is not easy since each discishypline has its body of literature its journals certain statistical methods customarily dominated by its practitioners and even its philosophical attitudes about research and the process of agricultural development Moreover universities and many agricultural research institutions are organized by discipline Promotions in universities are linked to publicashytions in the high prestige journals of individual disciplines
To overcome these barriers between disciplines strong institutional support and continued personal relationships are both required There is a tendency in farming systems projects to give control of the on-farm trials to either the biological or the social scientists or to compartmentalize their efforts For example the agricultural scientists might manage the researcher-managed on-farm trials and the economists the farmer-managed trials Or the agricultural scientist might ask the economists help in interpreting data without collaborating with himher on field research planning and design
The most basic differences between agricultural scientists and econoshymists are in their treatment of data (Collinson 1981 p 442) Agriculshytural scientists are trained to be extremely careful in data generation to verify results over a number of years and to utilize variations of analyshysis of variance to analyze the significance of yield differences However policymakers generally need new technology recommendations in short time periods and farmers are more interested in the profitability and fit into their operati s of one or two new systems of production than in the idenshytification of the level of significance of the treatments and their interactions
Economists with simple modeling and synthetic estimates (judgements of agricultural scientsts) can help fill the gap between the public policymakers and the farmers demands for new technology information and the output from agricultural scientists Some knowledge of the agriculshytural sciences and some simple modeling are the necessary components of the economists contribution The primary requisite for successful interdisshyciplinary collaboration is the desire of the team to respond rapidly to real world problems of technology evaluation even if the data utilized are preliminary and some of them are synthetic Preliminary results can always be refined and improved with further experiments andor data collection and analysis
One important contribution of Farming Systems Research has been to demonstrate the strategic importance of on-farm testing of new technologies as a critical component of the agricultural research process (for an estishymate of the rate of return to this research see Martinez and Arauz 1984) The primary unit in new technology production is the experiment station
14
However once the component parts of new technologies have been tested on the experiment station they can be combined into packages and tested under a wide range of farming conditions (Figure 3) The synergistic or multishyplicative (rather than additive) impact of combining several factors of production is well kriown in the agricultural sciences The individual factors are identified and measured on the experiment station In the onshyfarm trials combinations of factors are evaluated to identify new systemsof production that are profitable and fit into farmers production systems
On the experiment station non-treatment inputs are held at fixed but generally high levels so that they do not affect the performance of the treatment input(s) Usually the potential for static (increased variance) in the response of the treatment input(s) is reduced by the high levels of utilization of other inputs Experiment station trials tend to study one or sometimes two factors in considerable detail Experiment stations are usually selected in the best agricultural regions and over time due to different cultural practices the agricultural conditions become substanshytially different from those on farmers fields (Sanders and Lynam 1982 Byerlce Collinson et al 1981)
Once the more basic experiments have been undertaken on the station and before recommendations are made farm-level testing is necessary If the technology performance depends upon soil climate insect or disease incidence the farm trials can help identify these factors and estimate the economic impact of overcoming the specific constraint at different levels of its incidence For example fertilizers will have a larger impact in low soil fertility regions and a disease resistant variety will be more impressive where the disease occurs A water retention technique such as tied ridges wouli be expected to work better in the heavier soils In sandier soils the ridges will be more rapidly destroyed by wind or water Moreover the on-farm trials provide a crude estimate of the relative importance of the specific constraints on the farmers fields during the production period evaluated
One method for analyzing these betwcen-farm differences in new techshynology puiformance in greater detail is to utilize a large number of farms for the farm-level trials Repetitions are often made by increasing the number of farms rather than includi ig repetitions on each farm site (DeDatta et al 1978 Sanders and Lynam 1982) One implication of this design is that variance within farms cannot he separated Another is that within any constrained planting zeason a larger number of farms can be included
Another way to handle the between-farm variation in technology perforshymance is to stratify the environments in which the technology is evaluated
15
Experiment Station On-Farm Trials
More Basic Research More Applied Research
Component Research Systems or Package Research
Variance from Non-Treatment Analyze Variance from Non-Factors Minimized Treatment Factors
Repetitions on Same Experiment Replications Across Farms
New Technologies Originate Hrre New Technologies Evaluated Here Primary Activity Secondary Activity
Emphasis on Feedback of Information to Researchers in the Experiment Station
Based Upon Technology Performance on Farms--Request Technology Modifications from the Experiment Station
To Extension Service for Further Testing and Dissemination
Figure 3 Stages of the research process
SOURCE Adapted from Sanders and Lynam 1982 p 99
16
Soil types rainfall regimes or even farmer characteristics can be utilshyized to define research domains However the performance of many new technologies under different farm-level conditions is often a stochastic event The incidence of diseases and insects is unknown at planting time so there is no way to define research domains for these problems If there is a large sample the data carn be stratified after the trials Since it is often difficult in practice to minimize the on-farm performance variashytions of new technologies by defining research (or recommendation) domains with homogeneous characteristics it is frequently necessary to employlarger sample sizes ie more on-farm trials The number of trials necessary will also depend upon the types of technologies evaluated
In the initial years of on-farm testing (early and mid-70s)economists and other social scientists frequently administered the trials Over time agricultural scientists have generally taken over the implemenshytation of these trials This transition has improved trial quality since agricultural scientists are trained for this activity However the failure to adequately specify the objectives of on-farm testing can lead to trials which are only replicas of experiment centtation trials
With the above detailed examination of the on-farm methodologies it is easy to forget that the origin of new technologies is the experimentstation This is the primary unit in the technology development processThe on-farm testing performs an important evaluation function in the reshysearch production process but it is secondary to the primary organ of agricultural research the experiment station Moreover the quality of the on-farm trials will depond upon the input from the agriculturalscientist In the design and the evaluation phases the interdisciplinary input especially fcom econiomists will be critical
The integration of the on-farm and station-based research and their links to diagnostic surveys of the farmers in the target regions and to the operational research utilizing the data resulting from the on-farm trials are [llustrated in Figure 4 As mentioned previously both the diagnostic surveys and the evaluation of on-farm trials have important roles and should function simultaneously The operational research for the evaluashytion of these on-farm triaLs will be considered in the next section
Evaluation of On-Farm Technology Performance
The on-farm trials combine several factors or component parts preshyviously evaluated on he experiment station into different systems or packages Isolating each factor aid its interactions in these trials freshyquently becomes unmanageable Beets (1982) cites an IRRI cropping systemexperiment with 750 possible treatment combinations However 7 the princishypal concern of the on-farm trials is to identify combinationswhich are profitable of factorsand fit into the farmers systems of produccion
17
Target group farmers of a recommendation
domain in a Vagion
Survey diagnosis of farmer priorities resource and environment problems and development opportunities
Identification ofunsolved technical problems and possible new practices and materials relevant to farmers development opportunities
On-farm adaptive research
Operational research for identification and evaluation of materials and techniques
offering potential for problemsolution and the exploitation
of opportunities
Station-based technical
On-farm testing via experiments on apparentl relevant materials and techniques under farmers conditions
Use of existing body of knowledge of materials and techniques suitable for the climate and soils of the ion
Component research usingcommodity and disciplinary
research solvingpriority technical problems
and investigating possible new materials and practices
Figure 4 Schematic view of farming systems research method (after Collinson 1982)
18
The treatments of the on-farm trials representing different systems pass through three phases of evaluation (Figure 5) The first phase is identical to the experiment-station analysis some variation of analysis of variance (ANOVA) It determines whether under farmers conditions there are significant yield differences with the new technologies as comparedwith the treatment representing traditional farmers practices
However technology needs to move beyond yield differences to be acceptable to farmers With a minimal increase in data requirements from the local environment the yield data from the treatments are converted into gross and then net revenue utilizing product prices and input costs This simple budgeting answers the second question in the flowchart of Figure 5 Is the new technology more profitable than farmers traditional practices
Mention should be made here of two frequently cited problems with simple budgeting (a) price variation over time and within the production season and (b) costing of non-traded inputs such as land and family labor Product prices can vary substantially within a year especially with the customary post-harvest price collapse and between years in regions with substantial climatic fluctuations and limited governmental role in pricestabilization Moreover input costs will depend upon government subsidies and the real input costs to the farmer will also depend upon the availability of an input such as fertilizer at the right place and the right time Questions about the appropriate prices and costs to be utilshyized in the evaluation are valid concerns which need to be dealt with in the economic analysis of new technology
Price variability and the effects of government policy and market development mean that profitability is a complicated decision which can be influenced by the farmers marketing strategies and by macro factors outshyside the farmers control Nevertheless farmers need to be able to devise some strategy to make a profit from a new technology Sensitivity analysiswhich varies the prices and costs over the relevant range can be utilized to respond to this problem The simple budgeting analysis of on-farm trials is usually a mean or median estimate The variation in yield pershyformance and prices received between farms is a useful complement to this measure
Some of the relevant inputs that neeJ to be costed for budgetinganalysis may not have a market price In the WASAT family labor duringcertain periods for performing specific cultural operations such as the first weeding has a very high implicit value and may even be constrainingcertain types of output expansion Mathematical programming models take into account the implicit value of the inputs and put a cost on them (shadow price) whereas budgeting treatments make some arbitrary assumpshytions about the labor market Land rental depreciation of the capitalinput and management costs are also difficult to estimate and are
19
Trial New farm results trials
(1)
Are there Yes significant Increases No
Infarm yields with the new technologytech~(noloy
(2) farms be
Ysmore
Is thenwtechnology
profitable than
farmers practices~(multiple
Noaffecting
stratified bycharacteristics
the successful
performance of the newregres-
Yes
sion cluster analysis)
(3)
Yes new technology N Newfit into the No [experiments
farmers production system(programming marketing)
extension service Analysis and diagnosisL
for further testing feedback for andor technology redesign
extension
FLgure 5 Flow Chart for New Technology Evaluation in Farin Trials
Source Sanders and Lynam 1982 p 100
In any of the three stages of evaluation a new technology treatment may not pass the criteria based upon mean values Then astratification of farms is attempted upon an a priori basis For example the performance of a fertilizer technology would beInfluenced by the soil types Ifthere were two types of soils and there was a return to fertilization on one and not the other thenstratification into these two groups would be undertaken For the subgroup of farms where the fertilizer technology waseffective the three stages of evaluation would commence again The subgroup where fertilization was not effective would raiseresearch questions for analysis and diagnosis as Indicated in the above flowchart
20
often omitted in the simple or partial budgeting In spite of the difshyficulties of costing some inputs and the price variation profitability comparisons with sensitivity analysis give substantially more information than yield comparisons
Nevertheless even profitability is not a sufficient criteria for farmer acceptance A new system may be profitable but may require more labor at a peak period than the farmer can release from his other operashytions or the new activity may have much higher capital requirements than the farmer can obtain The third question (Figure 5) is whether the techshynology fits into the farmers production system Whereas simple budgeting can indicate that one activity is more profitable than another mathematishycal programming takes into account all other present and potentialactivities and the available on-farm and off-farm resources Utilizing this technique and the above information an estimate of the extent of potential adoption of a new technology on a representative farm can be made Moreover the farm-level constraints to the further adnption of more profitable nctivities can be identified Clearly the value of this modelshying will depend upon the researchers understanding of the farming systpmand his ability to simplify the model to the essential elements
These mathematical programming whole-farm modeling techniques have been operationalized at the farm level for approximately twenty years so their practical value in assisting public and farmer decision-making in developed countries has been repeatedly demonstrated (Doster et al 1981 McCarl 1982) One difficulty in the implementation of this technique in developing countries has been the computer requirement however the rapid diffusion of micro computers to the developing countries is resolving this problem even in the WASAT Nevertheless there is a necessary time investshyment involved in training the technicians economists and agricultural scientists to implement the se models and to interpret the results
Mathematical programming forces researchers to focus their data colshylection on the systems problems of production in a whole-farm context (forreviews and applications see Anderson et al 1985 Ghodake and Hardakef 1981 Roth et al 1986) Simple technical coefficients representing the relationships between inputs and outputs and the resources available to the farmer are the relevant data sets for evaluation of profitability and the fit of the new technologies into the farmers systems of productionAdjustments in the modeling can be made for more complicated farmer beshyhaviors than profit maximization Risk avoidance can be explicitlyincluded in the analysis with programming Other constraints imposed byeconomic and technical factors can frequently be included
Another step in technology evaluation could be the analysis of the intra- and inter-household effects (see McKee 1984 Nagy Ohm and Sawadogo 1986) There has been much concern recently with the role of women in farm production and consumption analysis more specific considerashytion of their roles in land use investment and consumption decisions are warranted Moreover specific technologies could have equity effects on
21
different types o6 farms and policymakers are often concerned with these potential outcomes
Many other considerations could also be raised such as environmental concerns or the cultural trauma often associated with economic or institushytional change However the emphasis of this paper is responding to the three questions in the flow diagram of Figure 5 Positive answers to these questions have been associated with farmer adoption of new technologies in both Colombia (Sanders and Lynam 1982 p 104) and Burkina Faso (Sanders et al 1985 pp 24-28) thus providing support for the evaluation criteria presented here These evaluation criteria as reflected in the three questions of Figure 5 appear to be logical simple and powerful for undertaking farm-level evaluation of new technologies
Micro vs Macro Approaches to Farming Systems Research
The farming system fits into and is affected by many larger systems Agricultural policy the availability of inputs and the functioning of the product markets all affect farm-level decisions about new technologies and farm-level planning for the development of new technologies
The most conservative approach in on-farm technology development is to assume that all these systems are not evolving and to attempt to develop new farming systems for the present levels of development in the other systems In the WASAT this orientation would precipitate a search for minimum input cost systems such as
a) new varieties used without chemical inputs such as inorganic fertilizer
b) higher densities c) different planting dates d) different rotations e) more systematic use of multiple cropping f) more utilization of on-farm inputs such as mulch and manure
These types of marginal changes are attempts to obtain small yield increments utilizing either available resources on the farm or an input such as a new variety which requires a minimal cash expenditure Oneshyinput changes of available resources such as planting dates and rotations are easy for farmers to implement and observe and many farmers carry on small experiments of this type The observation that farmers are not utilizing these adjustments appears to be good evidence that there are technical reasons for them not to utilize them G~ferally the yield effects of the small adjustments ate either very small or under certain natural condit ns they precipitate other problems irn the cropping system For example in Colombia higher field bean densities significantly inshycreased disease incidence even with spraying (CIAT 1979 p 92)
In the last decade the French international agricultural research institute (IRAT) has been joined by three other institutes (CIMMYT
22
ICRISAT and IITA) in the WASAT Their principal research activity has been the development of new food crop varieties especially cereals Yet few cereal varieties have been successful enough to displace local cultivars Matlon (1985) estimated that the new cereal varieties presently occupy less than 5 of the WASAT crop area In our view new varieties unaccompanied by other inputs belong in this group of marginal changes which have had little impact Why Much of the WASAT is characterized by inadequate and irregular rainfall and low fertility soils These are difficult agricultural conditions for one-inpit changes Therefore it appears that WASAT farmers will neei to itilize higher levels oflyurchased inputs and to take more risks in order t) increase their incomes
Presently the level of purchased input utilization in the WASAT especially chemical inputs is extremely low The eight Sahelian countries have the lowest chemical fertilizer consumption in the world at less than 3 kgha on crops Animal traction is still in the introductory stage at less than 15 of the farmers in the WASAr (Matlon 1985) Moreover only a smail portion of the cereals are marketed (less than 10 in FSU sample villages on the Central Plateau in Burkina Faso) Only 3 of the cropland in the eight Sahelian countries is irrigated (Matlon 1983) With these low levels of input use and infrastructure it does not appear to be approshypriate to develop new technologies for high levels of input use However it is important to make improvements in the marketing systems so that modshyerate input levels can be utilized and there will be increased marketing of the cereals
Marginal changes such as the minimal input utilization changes disshycussed previously are not expected to be sufficient to interest farmers or to lead to sustained yield increases Moderate input levels including chemical inputs are expected to be necessary to obtain significant yield increases which fit economically into the farmers production systems (see Chapter V for specific details on chemical fertilizer) Hence as new technologies are being developed and implemented over time input and proshyduct marketing institutions must also evolve The development of these markets may require governmental support and further research The effishyciency of the para-statal product marketing agencies and the role of prishyvate and public institutions in input markets are two primary issues of concern in the present agricultural development literature on Sub-Saharan Africa
What role should FSR projects have in influencing agricultural policy and other macro issues Historically there has been an urban bias in agricultural policies in most WASAT countries To keep food prices low for urban consumers WASAT governments have frequently intervened via parashystatal marketing organizations To compensate farmers for the low product prices these same governments often have provided input subsidies to farmshyers Presently the World Bank and US AID hTje been pressuring WASAT governments to eliminate these input subsidies At least in the short run this will reduce the profitability of agriculture discourage investshyment in agriculture and delay technology adoption Part of the evaluation
23
of new technologies by the FSR program should include some sensitivity analysis to estimate the farm-level effects of various agricultural polishycies including the elimination of input subsidies
In the recent summarv of FSR for the World Bank (Simmonds 1984) a distinction was drawn betweei modifications to present farming systems and entirely new systems of production Improved agronomy with moderate levels of inputs and ultimately introducing new varieties for these improved systems would be in the first category (and see Chapter V for concrete examples) However many of the poorer more marginal environments in the WASAT ultimately will need to gradually withdraw from crop production and move into grazing systems or forestry Crop farming in the WASAT migrated further north after the high rainfall period of the fifties As yield increases are attained in those regions of rainfed aiculture with more potential and in the river valleys and irrigated areas some present crop areas can be returned to more extensive agricultural systems Farming systems research will need to make some decisions about the regions with the most agricultural potential For those truly marginal regions more comprehensive systems changes may be necessary than are customarily evaluated in farming systems research
r-tional policy factors and national agricultural development planshyning cannot be ignored in FSR Many of these macro factors and evolving changes need to be explicitly incorporated into the analysis of which technologies and regions are appropriate for evaluation Nevertheless it is recommended that modeling concentrate on the farm level Without much better micro data and analysis than is presently available in most developshying countries extending farm models to sector analysis seems to be only a training device for economists rather than a useful exercise to enlighten agricultural development planners As the micro-modeling foundation is improved in the next five to ten years the agricultural sector models will be able to give a more useful input into agricultural policy formulation in the WASAT countries
Which agencies should undertake the on-farm testing
FSR presently takes five to ten percent of the budgets of several IARCs (Simmonds 1984 pp 67 68) and the IARCs have generally taken a leadership role in field application of on-farm testing The long-run frequently stated objective of the IARCs is to turn this activity over to the national agricultural research systems (NARC) The rationale is that the on-farm trials give very location-specific results The IARCs can develop methodologies and demonstrate the utilization of new research activities to the NARCs but ultimately larger numbers of on-farm trials in many regions will need to be undertaken in developing countries to evaluate the diverse technologies being produced in the IARCs and NARCs Not only does the scale of this testing make it infeasible for the IARCs to undertake all of it themselves but also much of the testing will be outside the commodity mandates of the individual IARCs
24
The institutional placement of on-farm testing depends upon the relative importance of the two clienteles for the products of the research at a given stage of technology development These two potential clienteles are the extension seryjce and the agricultural researchers On-farm trials which are successful give important information to the extension service and to those public officials involved with agricultural policy On-farm trials which are not successful give feedback on farm-level problems with the technologies to researchers at the experiment stations in both the national and international centers
If the primary emphasis of the on-farm trials needs to be on feedshyback then there are two problems with the present location of most farming systems research in the IARCs First several of the centers put the principal emphasis of their on-farm trials on providing information for the NARCs and the extension services (Simmonds 1985 pp 92-97) Presently there is less concern with feedback from the on-farm trials to IARC reshysearchers on the relevance and problems of the technologies they are developing Organizationally it appears to be very difficult for a divishysion of one institution to ierve for very long as an effective critic of its own activities
Secondly most of the IARCs Pre crop-breeding institutions including CIMMYT IRRI CIAT ICRISAT ICARDA and IITA Two of these centers CIMMYT and IRRI have been very successful in producing new varieties for those environments with adequate assured water availability and moderate to high levels of input utilization However in most of the harsher environments including the WASAT where these conditions are not met improvements in agronomy to attain moderate purchased input levels may need to precede the introduction of new varieties On-farm testing undertaken or financed by the IARCs tends to concentrate on the varietal effect since that is their mandate In these harsher environments institutions other than the IARCs (or even the NARCs which receive IARC assistance of new germ plasm) may need to do the on-farm testing
This on-farm testing in harsher climatic regions such as the WASAT would concentrate first on identifying agronomic improvements ie the combination of measures to improve water retention and soil fertility At a later stage the IARCs and NARCs could develop new varieties for these improved (but not high input) production systems The main points here are that at least in the WASAT stage of agricultural development the princishypal focus of on-farm testing will need to be on feedback to the research station and the principal focus of research on agronomic improvements
On-farm testing can be considered either as the last stage of the agricultural research process befcre passing the innovation on to the Extension Service or the first stage of the Extension process before demonstration trials and active diffusion measures Clearly there needs to be interaction between the NARC and the Extension Service consisting of the regular exchange of information and even planning of the on-farm trials If there is sufficient exchange of information and collaboration
25
in on-farm trial design the institutional location of these trialswill be less important
In summary on-farm trials will need to be undertaken by most agencies involved in agricultural experimentation in the WASAT Communication barriErs are sufficiently large between scientists and farmers that this type of intermediate activity is expected to be necessary for several decades since the IARCs NARCs and other agencies apparently need this source of feedback on the performance of their technologies Since we have been stressing the importance of feedback all through this chapter we argue that the on-farm trials should be located in the research rather than the extension entity so that feedback results are more readily acceptable at the experiment station
As on-farm trials move into the NARCs and are financed by their own internal financial resources lower ccst methods for conducting on-farm trials must be sought These trials tend to be very intensive in their use of highly qualified scientific manpower for planning and evaluation Their execution requires good logistic support and training for a large number of field workers It would appear that in the WASAT external financing and external scientific manpower will be necessary for some time to continue high levels of on-farm testing
Conclusions
Defining farmers constraints to increasing agricultural production is a complicated task best illustrated by example In the conclusions to this report (Chapter VI) we return to this problem to illustrate the conshytribution of the Purdue farming systems project to constraint identification in the WASAT Meanwhile the survey process can be divided into an initial or baseline study which describes the farmers production and household systems and supplementary or diagnostic surveys which invesshytigate particular research areas as they arise For the baseline study the in-depth village-household production and consumption analyses freshyquently undertaken by anthropologists and sociologists seem especially relevant to an understanding of the farming systems in the areas specifishycally targeted for further research activity during the on-farm stage of FSR Supplementary diagnostic 3urveys can then be undertaken in response to specific objectives of th farm-level work especially the on-farm testing of new technclogies These will often be within the disciplinary area of agricultural economists In the modeling stage of the evaluation process there will frequently be a need for supplementary farm business or household information
One primary recommendation here is that the on-farm testing phase of the FSR begin in the first production season Agricultural scientists will generally have a series of recommendations of component parts for farm testing Putting these individual factors together into technology packages and testing them under farmers conditions will help to further develop their understanding of farmers objectives and systems The
26
agricultural scientists will generally have much more interest in field experiments than in the diagnostic surveys In this initial stage of onshyfarm testing the principal direction of information flow will be feedback to the researchers as the packages are expected to have either technical or economic prulblems impeding their acceptance by farmers
Multi-disciplinary collaboration especially between the agricultural scientists and economists is essential for the on-farm testing Agriculshytural scientists know well the mechanics of the testing process Econoshymists understand the farmers objectives Both need to collaborate to understand the interactions and complexities of farmers systems of proshyduction There should be collaboration in research design to avoid replishycating experiment station trials and to obtain the necessary data for economic analysis
On the farm the treatments are generally different systems of production rather than individual factors The analysis proceeds from a statistical analysis of the significance of yield differences to economic concerns with profitability and the fit into the farmers systems of proshyduction The comparison between treatments analyzes the potential benefits to the farmers from new technology adoption since the control is a proxy for the farmers system of production The simplest economic analysis is the evaluation of profitability using partial budgets However this type of analysis is not as simple as it appears because of price variation and the difficulty of attiibutinrg prices to some production factors Generally an attempt is made to overcome these budgeting problems with sensitivity analysis
The final step in the evaluation is to consider the potential fit of the activity irto the farmers systems of production with mathematical proshygramming This whole f=crm analysis simulates the farmers decision-making process by including information on all present and potential activities using the data on on-farm and off-farm resource availabilities New sysshytems of production that pass through all three stages of this evaluation are expected to be adopted by farmers There is some adoption evidence from both Colombia and Burkina Faso supporting the above assertion
In the harsh envirarunent of the WASAT given the very low utilization of purchased inputs at present marginal agronomic changes such as density timing or even varietal change are expected to have little or even negashytive impact Larger systems changes involving technologies which simultaneously augment water conservation and soil fertility are hypothesized as necessary in order to raise yields sufficiently so that these new systems not only yield more than farmers practices on their own fields but also are profitable and fit into farmers production systems
National economic and agricultural policies can have a large impact on technology evaluation and even the planning of FSR Policymakers need to be concerned with creating an environment in which farmers can make money from adopting new technologies In the short run in the WASAT the
27
elimination of input subsidies especially if ceilings are retained for product prices will make it more difficult for farmers to profit from new technology adoption By evaluating the impact of different agricultural and economic policies on the farm-level profitability and potential adopshytion of new technologies the FSR program may be able to help influence governmental policy formation
Another impact of national policy is on agricultural development planning Frequently FSR programs are designed for marginal agricultural areas Alternatives to developing technologies for these regions may be public health investments in river valleys and yield-improving strategies in the dryland regions with better agricultural resources If yields can be sufficiently improved for the higher resource regions some shifting into livestock or even forestry may be appropriate land-use decision for the more marginal agricultural areas For these types of land-use changes government would need to finance the human resettlement costs Change in agricultural activities of this magnitude are not generally included in FSR Hence Simmonds (1984 p 121) developed a new term for it New Farming Systems Develonment (NFSD)
In the WASAT a prerequisite to new variety development appears to be the simultaneous utilization of moderate input levels to improve water retention and soil fertility Once these agronomic improvements are in place new variety introduction is expected to have more potential for sucshycess than at the present time Some of the on-farm trials in the WASAT may need to be underjgken by agencies whose principal activity is not new variety development
The on-farm testing can be either the final step in the research proshycess of the NARC IARC or other research institution or the fi t step in the Extension Service before demonstration trials or other disL mination activities The institutional location should depend upon whether the prishymary product is feedback on technology improvement to experiment station researchers or feedforward of technologies to be disseminated by the Extension Service Since the process of feedback to researchers is conshysidered to be the most important objective of on-farm testing in the early stages of agricultural technology development in the WASAT our institushytional preference for the location of these trials is with the national agricultural research centers (NARCs) rather than the national extension service The scientists in the on-farm trials will know how to convince the scientists on the experiment station of the validity of their results Some of them may even fulfill algual role working on both the experiment station and the on-farm trials As more technology is validated in the on-farm trials and can move on to the Extension Service the returns to investments in the institutional ties between the NARCs and the Extension Service will be increased
28
FOOTNOTES
This type of infrmation flow is customarily referred to as feedback
Farming Systems and other research programs also attempt to provideinformation on new technologies to farmers and extension agents Anyagricultural research program ult imately needs to have an impact on the well-being of farmers in order to survive Since the economic imporshytance of this directional flow of information to farmers is obvious we consider it to be more importlant to stress here the importance of the feedback to researchers so that they are more effective in doing their job ie producing new technologies
2 Dillon (1976 pp 6-7) contrasts philosophic differences of scientific
investigation into two approaches Reduc t ionism implied reducingphenomena to their more basic (and hopefully independent) parts analyzshying these parts as independent entities to explain their behavior and then aggregating these explanations as an explanation of the phenomenon under study Reductionism abetted and fostered the proliferation of specialized deafness and tunnel vision in form of independentthe scienshytific disciplines
Since the fifties reductionism has been increasingly seen as an inadequate basis for science to either understand or to manipulate and control its environment An alternative approach is the systems or holistic approach This is a multi-disciplinary approach in which explanation then proceeds in terms of the role or function of the part in the Larger system(s)
Clearly heshe will be exposed to all the other types of constraints but disciplinary blinders often exist especially for those involved in their own research programs
4 A recent international agricultural research center meeting for the planniig of on-farm trials in Africa concluded that the initial descripshytion and diagnostic activity of the FSR should be rapidly implemented so that a crop season for experimentation is not lost (unpublished summaryof meeting notes ILRAD Oct 1984) Diagnosticsurvey activities and farm-level experimentation can continue simultaneously In fact the farm-level experimentation will require additional diagnosticsurvey activities to evaluate the Economic potential of the new technology
The diagnostic surveys of economists have not been nearly as useful for a comprehensive understanding of the farming and household systems as those of the anthropologists Howev-r the utility of the economist on multi-disciplinary teams to undertake and evaluate on-farm trials has been repeatedly demonstrated and is now widely if not universally acshycepted (Simmonds 1984 pp 24 71-75 125) The other social scienshytists have not yet demonstrated their capacity to work on these types of teams They appear to be in the position of defining their role a position similar to that of the economists about a decade earlier
29
6 Generally soil fertility is higher on the experiment station and the
incidence of anddiseases insects is greater than on the surrounding farms due to the repeated intensive cultivation of the same crops Howshyever on the experiment station the high levels of non-treatment inputs such as agricultural chemicals can reduce the levels of insects disshyeases and weeds to levels even lower than on the farmers fields For farmers these levels of chemical control are often not profitable
Occasionally the impact of one or two components will be estimated as with fertilization and tied ridges (a water-conservation technique) alone and in combination in the Burkina Faso FSU program
8 If the weeding is not done opportunely there can often be a yield
decline Moreover all farms in a given region will be performing these types of operations at approximately the same time Hence it will be very difficult for farmers to hire temporary labor away from their famshyily operations So the implicit value or productivity of the family labor becomes very high in these particular tasks at certain critical times
9 A more comprehensive agricultural policy analysis would include the macro effect of new technology introduction on prices as is done in agriculture sector models But because so many other structural changes are occurring at the same time this price effect is not considered to be very important at least in the initial stages of technology development
10 Those advocating these types of planting density date or other culshy
tural system change generally are expecting yield increases of only 10 to 20 This type of yield increase is very difficult for the farmer to see and could easily disappear as on-farm trials change from researcher to farmer management New agronomic system changes are expected to take time for farmers to master if a series of component part changes are implied andor timeliness of the relevant operations is also important Hence the yield differences of these minimal changes even if they truly exist will often disappear in the learning-by-doing effect
11 Once farmers are utilizing moderate purchased input levels it will be
very important to systematically evaluate the im-pact of these marginal changes especially new varieties and more intensive cropping systems
12 By removing all input subsidies and other price distortions or intervenshy
tions governments and international agencies can calculate the real resource cost of various alternative policies and ascertain their comshyparative advantage in international production This analysis assumes that the re are no differences between private and public benefits or between private and social costs Hence there are no externalities in the system
30
Removing these price and cost distortions will facilitate economic calculations and in the long run welfare gains are expected In the short run the elimination of input subsidies is expected to sharply slow down the agricultural developmenc process and to put upward presshysure on agricultural product prices and the demand for agricultural import substitutes Developed country exporters of agricultural proshyducts would be the principal beneficiaries of higher agricultural import levels in the developing countries
13 In the river valleys and irrigated regions human health constraints may be the principal factor limiting agricultural development River blindshyness has been a serious problem in many of the Burkina Faso river valshyleys An erradiation program has now at least temporarily eliminated this problem In the irrigation projects the widespread incidence of bilharzia substantially reduces labor productivity
14 By successful we mean passing the three evaluation criteria recommended
in Figure 5 Clearly agricultural scientists will also be interested in those technologies being passed on to the Extension Service for diffusion We are stressing here their interest in feedback in order to resolve those problems in their technologies which came to their attenshytion because of the results of the on-farm trials
15 We would expect that those agencies principally concerned with varietal
development would emphasize varietal testing in their on-farm trials The on-farm trials are important activities for institutions primarily concerned with breeding Nevertheless a third party such as a univershysity may be necessary in order to carry out the farm trials without preconceived notions which would emphasize certain varieties or other types of technology
16 The differences are so great between the experiment station and the
farm-level definitions of constraints and relevant research problems that one of the field agronomists from this project even proposed that all agricultural scientists working on the experiment stations in the WASAT should have some involvement with on-farm trials
CHAPTER IV
PRODUCTION CONSTRAINTS OF THE WASAT FARMING SYSTEMS
The WASAT is not as well endowed with a climate or soil resource base as most of the populated areas of the world This chapter elaborates on the major physical and resource endowment constraints of the WASAT and describes cropping patterns farmers goals and objectives and modern input use
Climate
The WASAT region is a transition zone betwien the northern desert and the humid tropics of the south There are three distinct seasons warm and dry from November to March hot and dry during March through May and hot and wet from May to October Harmattan conditions (hot dry dustshyladen winds) exist during the November to March period
Rainfall in the May to October agricultural season over the entire WASAT ranges from 200 mm in the north to 1300 mm in the south with potenshytial evapotranspiration ranging between 2200 mm in the north to 1600 mm in the south (Nicou and Charreau 1985) Since the mid-sixties annual rainshyfall has averaged 100 to 150 mm below the long-term average within each isohyet (Dancette 1977) Thus the isohyet levels delineating the climatic zones in Figure 1 would be at lower levels if more recent rainfall data were used
Rainfall is extremely variable over time and over space Nicholson (1982) states that in normal rainfall years 40 to 50 of individual weather stations experience below-normal rainfall Rainfall vaiiabiltty at individual stations ranges from 15 of the long-term average in the south to 50 in the north (Nicholson 1982) Also the number of below-normal years tend to exceed the number of wet years The long-term average rainshyfall is inflated by a few extremely wet years (Nicholson 1982) The area also has a long history of intermittent droughts and wet spells
Soil Fertility and Water Retention
Soils in the WASAT are predominantly sandy red alfisols low in organic matter and exchangeable cations with a soil texture high in sand (60-95) anO low in silt and clay content (Matlon 1985 Nicou and Charreau 1985) The soils tend to be deficient in phosphorous and nitroshygen Long fallow periods can restore soil fertility but phosphorous and nitrogen deficiency symptoms have been observed shortly after the land is put into cultivation (IFDC 1985) The phosphorous sorption capacity of WASAT soils vary widely but is generally low decreasing the agronomiceffectiveness of phosphate fertilizers (IFDC 1985) Nitrogen can be quickly exhausted in these fragile poorly buffered soils (IFDC 1985) The soils contain only weak aggregates and in many regions the soil surface
32
dries after a rain and forms a crust which restrict water infiltration and aeration (Kowal and Kassam 1978) These soil properties combined with high intensity rainfall lead to water retention and erosion problems In the dry season the soils harden making pre-plant cultivation difficult and almost impossible by traditional methods until there is a major rain (Kowal and Kassam 1978)
The quality of the land in terms of fertility and organic matter conshytent varies greatly in tarmers fields Land quality and soil water retenshytion are highly correlated with topography and distance from the compound area around the living quarters The quality and water retention ability of the soil deteriorates as one moves farther up the toposequence and away from the compound area thus requiring different cropping and management strategies by the farmer (Stoop et al 1982)
Although more productive vertisols and hydromorphic soils are found along river valleys the presence of Onchoceriasis (river blindness) in many of the river valleys has made them uninhabitable in the past
Labor Availability
Labor shortages exist in the critical planting and weeding periods (FSUSAFGRAD 1983) Planting of millet and sorghum begins with the first significant rains in May or June This is followed by rice groundnut and maize planting in combination with the sorghum and millet first weeding activities Depending on the level and distribution of rainfall fields may require resowing transplanting andor thinning Usually a second and at times a third weeding will follow Most of the plantingfirst weeding period occurs over a six-week time period with the household supshyplying the labor
When farmers were asked why they did not hire more labor for first weeding their reply was Because there is no one to hire then everyone is busy with their own weeding (FSUSAFCRAD 1983) Households do not genershyally hire labor from other households because cash and food reserves at this time of year are at their lowest and not sufficient to pay laborers a wage rate (or its equiyalent in food) equal to the opportunity cost of working their own land Also few laborers are in the labor market at this time because households have control of their family labor and utilize it for their own production needs (Kowal amp Kassam 1978)
Cropping Patterns
Cereal production is the dominant agricultural activity in the WASAT (Kowal and Kassam 1978) Regional cropping patterns in the WASAT differ-shythe most notable difference being the increasing dominance of millet over sorghum maize and root crops as soil fertility and rainfall decrease from south to north About 80 of the cropped area in the WASAT is intershycropped--cerealcereal and cereallegume are the most common (Fussell and Serafini 1985 Sawadogo et al 1985) Cowpeas are usually intercropped
33
with millet or sorghum at low densities of 1000 to 8000 plants per hectare The main cash crops in the south include cotton groundnuts and bambara nuts Small amounts of rice are grown in the bottom lands and irrigated areas
At the farm level land quality the water retention ability of the soil and labor availability are the dominant factors in farmers cropping decisions (Lang et al 1983) The staple crops of maize sorghum and millet receive the highest priority of land and labor resources Drought tolerance of the crops are matched with soil fertility and toposequence Maize which is less tolerant to drought and low soil fertility than either sorghum or millet is planted near the villagle compound on the more-fertile compound field This field ranging in size from 1 to 2 ha is used as a dump for night soil animal manure stubble and other organic material Sorghum is planted on the lower areas where there is slightly more water accumulation and where the soils are more fertile than the poorer soils further up the toposequence (Stoop et al 1982) The more abundant but poorer land is planted to millet which has the most tolerance to drought and low soil fertility Farmers say that in the worst rainfall years some millet can always be harvested
Millet and sorghum can be found growing in the next higher soil fershytility gradient than is dictated by their drought tolerance ability but maize and sorghum are rarely grown on a lower soil fertility gradient Farmers say that white sorghum is preferred because it stores twice as long as millet however more sorghum is not sown because of limited good qualshyity land and because sorghum is more vulnerable to parasites such as striga Maize and sorghum planting is thus constrained by the availability of high quality land whereas the millet area is constrained by the labor supply in the plantingfirst weeding period
In the old settlement areas cereal yields are declining in response to lower soil fertility caused by the decrease in the fallow period and lower average rainfall over the last decade (Lang et al 1984) As the soil fertility declines sorghum is being replaced by millet which yields better on the poorer soils Farmers in the village of Nedogo say that much more sorghum was planted in the village when they were young than is planted now (Ames 1986)
Farmer Goals and Objectives
Norman (1982) states that the most important differences among farming systems come from the constraints peculiar to the region and not from difshyferences in farmer aspirations (which include higher incomes effort reducshytion and risk avoidance) Farmers in older settlement areas have conshystraints and endowments which differ from those of farmers in frontier villages Farmers in the older settlement areas of Burkina where access to land is limited and soil fertility low indicated uniformly that their only goal was subsistence (FSUSAFGRAD 1983) This means harvesting enough sorghum and millet in November to feed their families until the beginning
34
of the August maize harvest that provides food during the hungry period-shythe period between ending cereal stocks and the new harvest (FSUSAFGRAD 1983) When asked to specify other goals and objectives the first priorshyity was the payment of a head tax and if resources remained meetingurgent needs which were listed as medical Other priorities were to reward the family with clothes for their work during the cropping season and to greet their in-laws or arrange marriages (FSUSAFGTAD 1983)
On the frontier where access to fallow land is notl limited half of the farmers gave subsistence oriented responses that were similar to the responses given in the older settlement areas However half of the farmshyers responded that We were once concerned only with survival but now we also think of accumulating wealth When asked What is wealth they replied cattle (FSUSAFGRAD 1983)
The survey results indicated that although farmers in the WASAT in general are subsistence oriented the goals and objectives of farmers difshyfer given different constraints This is evidenced by the total subsisshytence orientation of the sample of farmers in the old settlement villages versus the orientation of those farmers in the frontier village who indishycated wealth accumulation as one of their main goals Higher soil fertilshyity and access to land at the frontier has permitted farmers to look beyond subsistence goals This appears to demonstrate that if through technologshyical introduction some of the constraints to increasing yield in the WASAT can be alleviated the aspirations of farmers will allow technology adopshytion to occur (at some level of profit effort and risk)
Modern Input Use
Except for tuie higher rainfall regions of the Sudano-Guinean region and some river valleys credit and modern inputs such as fertilizer pestishycides herbicides and improved varieties are not widely used in the WASAT Even in these regions of higher rainfall purchased input utilization is concentrated on the export crops cotton and groundnuts FAO fertilizer statistics indicate that NPK use in eight Sahelian countries averaged less than 3 kgha as compared to 73 kgha in Asia (Matlon 1985) Less than 15 of farmers use animal traction in the WASAT (Matlon and Spencer 1985) Animal traction is used for shallow land preparation plowing and shallow weeding but utilization rates are low and farmers seldom are equipped to do more than one mechanized operation (Jaeger 1985)
Neither input nor product marketing infrastructure nor a research and extension service similar to that developed for cash crops in the WASAT pre-independence era (pre-1960) was ever developed for food crops In the Colonial period food requirements were met by the subsistence-oriented agricultural system There was little export demand for food crops such as sorghum and millet (World Bank 1985) Since the late 1960s however rapid population growth and lower food crop yields due to lower rainfall levels and declining soil fertility have substantially increased food crop
35
demand to the point where food security is not assured in most regions of the WASAT Expanding cereal imports have accompanied this trend
Even with the population pressure and increased food demand since independence an input and product marketing infrastructure for food crops has not developed Poor fertility 3oils erratic rainfall distribution and low soil water retention have led to highly variable between-year yield responses to many land-substituting inputs For example the response of fertilizer is highly dependent upon the availability of sufficient water at several critical periods Thus fertilizer utilization can be very risky Similarly iroved varieties have not dcne well under traditional manageshyment conditions (Matlon 1985)
Labor-saving animal traction technology is not widely used in the WASAT in spite of potentially high ratc of return Present internal rates of return of 10 in old settlement areas (Nedogo) and 20 to 30 at the frontier (Diapangou) have been estimated but higher rates of return could be achieved with higher utilization rates principally through expansion of the number of mechanized agricultural operations (Jaeger 1985) Most animal traction farms observed in Burkina Faso mechanized either the land preparation or the cultivation operations but not both Problems of obtaining high utilization rates stein from small size farms inapproprishyate andor incomplete set of implements poor animal health and nucrition and poor management (Jaeger and Sanders 1985) Higher utilization rates and the full benefit of mechanization are not obtained by first-time animal traction users because learning curves can be as long as five years (Jaeger and Sanders 1985) Few animal traction extension programs exist which train farmers and draft animals and thus facilitate animal traction usage
In summary low soil fertility and low soil water retention low variable and unpredictable rainfall in combination with a high evapotransshypiration rate labor shortages in the critical planting and weeding periods and the limited access to land in old settlement areas are the major physical and resource endowment constraints to increased cereal yields in most of the WASAT (Matlon 1985 Nagy et al 1985 Lang et al 1984) The physical environment makes new technology adoption in the WASAT risky The national research institutions extension and input and product marketing infrastructures to support new technology adoption and dissemination are at a low level Thus farming systems on the frontier continue to be bush-fallow systems that rely on available land and family labor inputs with little utilization of purchased inputs Farming systems in the older settled area have been shifting to more millet production and yields have declined and stabilized at low levels
Despite the current situation in the WASAT recent research findings suggest that a Malthusian perspective can be iverted Several on-farm evaluated technologies have been shown to be both agronomically and economshyically feasible in increasing cereal production and others have promise for the future A review of the proposed technologies and farm management practices for the WASAT is the subject of the next chapter
36
Footnotes
Whole farm modeling results indicate opportunity costs of labor in the
last two weeks of the plantingfirst weeding period to be 365 and 181 FGFAhr respectively for manual tillage farmers which is in contrast to the wage rate of 30 to 50 FCFAhr (Roth et al 1986)
CHAPTER V
TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT TO INCREASE CEREAL PRODUCTION IN THE WASAT
Introduction
This chapter reviews the technologies and farm management techniques that have been proposed for alleviating the production constraints in the WASAT This review uses agronomic and socio-economic data and information frGn the Purdue FSU piogram supplemented by other research from the area The FSU program conducted research in three climatic zones with village research sites in the southern portion of the Sahelo-Sudanian zone in the Sudanian zone and in the northern portion of the Sudano-Guinean climatic zone (Figure 2) Thus FSU findings and the review of most of the techshynolog0ies and recommendations reflect this orientation
As each technology is discussed it is evaluated as to the feasibility of its utilization by farmers within the short run (0 to 5 years) the intermediate run (5 to 15 years) and the long run The criteria used in the evaluation attempt to follow the strategy used by farmers in their adoption process (see Figure 5 in Chapter III and Table 1 in this chapter)
Socio-economic research suggests that farmers do not necessarily adopt technologies as a package but rather adopt single technologies or clusters of technologies en route to total package adoption (Byerlee and Hesse de Polanco 1986 Mann 1978) This is in spite of the fact that the largest impact on yields comes about when various methods (technologies) are used in combinition or as a package The farmers strategy seems to be to adopt the technologies of the package sequentially based on availability technical viability in the field economic profitability and risk conshysiderations and the resource endowment fit of the technology (ie labor and land constraints) within the farming system The technologies within the package that best exhibit the above attributes will be selected first by the farmer Other technologies will be added only after the farmer has had positive experience with the already adopted technologies and when the above attribute requirements are again met Thus while farmers can be presented with a package of technologies there seems to be an agronomically and economically logical sequence by which technological adoption will occur Information on the likely adoption pattern sequence of proposed technologies is important for focusing research extension and government programs
In this chapter available agronomic technical and socio-economic research findings are used to review and sequence the proposed technologies and farm management practices for the WASAT For example research findings from on-station and on-farm research trials are used to assess technical viablity in the field Economic budget analysis and benefit-cost
38
Table 1 Present technical and economic feasibility and time frame of proposed technologies and farm management practices for the WASAT
Technologies Present Ayronomic and Technical Feasibility Present and Farm Mgmt On-Station On-Farm Economic
Practices Research Research Feasibility Comments
Available technologies for the short run
Tied ridging (manual) +++ Very labor intensive Diguettesdikes 3 Require materials (ie rocks) Complex fertilizer ++ Risk of losing cash outlayAnimal traction 3 ++ Preconditions (see text) Mechanical ridge tier +++ ++ Requires animal traction
Potential technologies for the intermediate run Rock phosphate + - Solubility amp application problems Improved varieties ++ + - Requires upgrading of physical
environment
Potential technologies for the long run Manurecomposting +++ ++ Small and finite supply Mulch +++ ++ Small and finite supply Plowinggreen manuring ++ ++ - Poor draft animal health
Herbicides ++ ++ - Further research requiredBiol nitrogen fixation + - Further research requir Crop associations - intensification ++ + - Requires upgrading of physical - alley cropping ++ + - environment and improved
varieties Labor and management
intensive
++ High degree of feasibility--research supports a very good agronomic response or is technically very
feasible ++ Feasible--good agronomic response or technically feasible + Limited feasibility--agronomic results often inconsistent - Not feasible--little evidence to support a good agronomic response or technical feasibility
HaHighly profitable at present
= Profitable at present = Not always profitable at pres(ent
- NHot economically feasible at present
3 Not researched at the on-station level
4 Can be feasible for sole cropping but problems with mixture of broad and slender leaf plants in crop associations
39
ratios are used to determine economic profitability Research irial results and the incidence of cash outlay loss are used to assess risk Whole farm modeling and labor data analysis is used to indicate the fit of the technolshyogy within the farming systems Farmers views and comments are also incorporated
Once the technologies and farm management practices are reviewed and sequenced for either the short intermediate or long run the discussion in this chapter turns to identifying available technologies--first for the present cereal-based farming systems and second for a future more intenshysified farming system The technologies available for use in the present farming systems are then further sequenced on a recommendation domain basis
Proposed Technologies for the WASAT
The research that has been carried out in the WASAT aimed at overcomshying climatological and physical constraints and labor endowment shortages is discussed under the hicadings 1) soil fertilitywater retention techshynologies 2) labor-saving technologies 3) improved varietal research and 4) crop associations Table 1 presents a summary of the technical and ecoshynomic feasibility evaluation and a time frame for the availability of the proposed technologies and farm management practices
1) Soil FertilityWater Retention Technologies
Tied Ridges Tied ridging technology was introduced in the 1950s in West Africa (Dagg and Macartney 1968) On-station and on-farm research has shown that tied ridges significantly increase yields (Nicou and Charreau 1985 Dugue 1985 Rodriguez 1982 Ohm et al 1985a and 1985b) (see Photograph 5 page 41) FSU on farm researcher-managed (TR constructed both at and one month after planting) and farmer-managed trials (TR conshystructed 4-6 weeks after planting) have shown significant yield increases and economic returns to the additional labor required for TR on maize sorghum (Table 2 column 2) and millet (FSU 1983 Annual Report 1983 Lang et al 1984 and Ohm et al 1985a and 1985b) Manual tying of ridges is very labor intensive The manual tying of ridges constructed with animal traction requires at least 40 man hoursha (with very efficient laborers) and on average 75 man hoursha whereas constructing TR completely by hand requires at least 100 hoursha (Ohm et al 1985b) (see Photograph 6 page 41)
PJshy
-no pre-plant soil itillage no fertilization Soil scarification with animal traction~Woman planting millet by traditional manual method
-
Left fertilization right no fertilization foreground droughty area in field shy a typical view in the Central Manual construction of tiec oges in researcher-managed trial - mulch applied to somePlateau plots
D II
A
FSU researcher managed trials near Poedogo Water entrapment in depressions resulting from tied ridgesa No fertilization construction of tied ridges at plantingb No fertilization construction of tied ridges one month after plantingc No fertilization without tied ridges d Fertilization and tied ridges
Ad T7 Z
Farmer-managed plots - Left traditional method no fertilization and no tied ridging right fertilization Farmer-managed trials - Left foreground mulch applied no fertilization nor construciion of tied ridgesand tied ridging Right foreground fertilization and contruction of tied ridges one month after planting Background farmshyers traditionally managed field
43
Construction of tied ridges with mechanical ridge tier FSU researcher managed trial Background maize intershycropped with cowpeas fertilized with construction of tiedridges at planting Foreground maize intercropped with cowshypeas no fertilization nor construction of tied ridges
43 - a
Table 2 Economic analysis of farmer-managed trials of sorghum with fertilizer and tied ridges Nedogo and Diapangou 1983 and 1984
1 Treatments
C TR F TRF Nedogo 1984 Manual Traction
Grain Yield kgha 2 157 416 431 652
Yield Gain Above Control kgha - 259 274 495
Gain in Net Revenue FCFAha 3 - 23828 13275 33607
Returnhr of Additional Labor FCFA4 238 140 172- Farmers Whio Would Have Lost Cash - 0 27 9
1aedogo 1983 Manual Traction Grain Yield kgha 430 484 547 851 Yield Gain Above Control kgha - 54 117 421 Gain in Net Revenue FCFAha - 3510 -2285 17475 Returnhr of Additional Labor FCFA - 35 - 90 Farmers Who Would Have Lost Cash - 0 66 0
Diapangou 1984 Donkey Traction Grain Yield kgha 498 688 849 1133 Yield Gain Above Control kgha - 190 351 635 Gain in Net Revenue FCFAha - 17480 20359 46487 Returnhr of Additional Labor FCFA - 233 214 273 Farmers Who Would Have Lost Cash shy 0 21 0
Diapangou 1983 Donkey Traction Grain Yield kgha 481 522 837 871 Yield Gain Above Control kgha - 71 356 390 Gain in Net Revenue FCFAha - 6532 20819 23947Returnhr of Additional Labor FCFA - 87 219 141 Farmers Who Would Have Lost Cash - 0 16 12
Source Ohm et al 19851) and Lang et al 1984 Similar results were obtained at three other sites in Burkina
1 C = Control (no tied ridges or fertilizer) TR = tied ridges constructed at second weeding F = fertilizer 100 kgha 14-23-15 applied in band 10-15 cm from row at first weeding plus 50 gla urea applied in pockets 10-15 cm from seed pockets at second weeding
2 The standard error and CV (in parentheses) starting with Nedogo 1984 and conshy
tinUing through to Diapangon 1983 are 75 (43) 121 (29) 46 (18) and 43 (22) respectively Net Revenue = yield gaiii x grain price (65 and 92 FCFAkg in 1983 and 1984) minus fertilizer cost (62 and 78 CFAkg for 14-23-15 and 60 and 66 FCFAkg for urea in 1983 and 1984--fertili C prices are subsidized 40 to 50) Includes interest rate charge for six months at rate of 15 1 US dollar = 381 FCFA in 1983 and 436 FCFA in 1984 Net Revenue + additional labor of tied ridging and fertilizer application Manual and donkey traction require 100 and 75 hours of additional laborha for tied ridging respectively Fertilizer application requires 95 additional hoursha
44
Tied ridge construction has the advantage that no cash outlay is reshyquired if family labor is utilized However a survey of technology adoption by farmers in FSU villages indicated that the number of farmers constructing tied ridges and the hectarage of tied ridge construction outshyside the trial plots were small--an average of 032 hectaresfarmer with the largest being 10 hectare (Ohm et a] 1985b) When questioned farmers indicated that thev would like to construct more TR but they did not have sufficient family Iabo I ir ing from an outside labor pool is limited at the time tied ridges mu be coumstructed because the active labor force of all households is fully occupied with work in their own fields Linear programming representative farm models (Table 3 column 2) also indicate that labor availab i i ty const rainos prevent the manual tying of animal traction constructed ridges from beilng ut ilized on the entire farm
Another limitation is that tied ridging does not work well on sandy soils because the ties tend to break down in heavy rain Nevertheless aim estimated 40 of the presently cultivated land in Burkina and 15 in Mali appears to be suitable for tied ridging This represents 12 million hecshytares (Burns 1985) Tied ridges have been shown to be both agronomically and economicaly feasih Ic as a technology applicable at the present time to increase cereal product ion in the WASAT However the labor constraint requires a search for labor- saving technoloies
I)iguettesdikes There are various water conservationerosion methods in addition to tied ridges that are or could be used in the WASAT The construction of diguettes although not as effective in retaining water as tied ridges is a water conservation method that has been investigated Diguettes are barriers 10 to 15 cm high mainly made of rocks and placed on field contour lines 10 to 50 meters apart The barriers are permeable ard slow rainfall runoff to allow for increased infiltration They have imshyproved water retention and signiicantly increased yields in the norther[ (Yatenga) region of Burkina (Wright 1985) This technology has the advarshytage that it can be constructed in off peak labor periods with family labor and is not as labor intensive as tied ridging However rocks (the prinshycipal material) or other material in some regions are not available to conshystruct the diguettes Economic analysis indicates that the returns in the first year alone are greater than the labor bill (at the going wage rate) of constructing the diguettes In Burkina Faso local government agencies have constructed large dikes and barriers to control water flow at the village level Although diguettes and other forms of water retention and control require further research thme large dikes and diguettes are technologies that could be used at present
Complex Themical Fertilizers Under on-station and on-farm conditions significant yield increases for maize sorghum and millet have been obtained using complex mineral fertilizers (Pieri 1985 Ohm et al 1985b FSU Annual Reports) Yield response to fertilizer is however highly variable between sites and years (Spencer 1985) Nevertheless some researchers sugsest that continuous cropping using chemical fertilizers is potentially possible in the WASAT (see Pier 1985 p 77 for a literature review
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
45
Table 3 Whole farm modeling analysis of tied ridging with donkey tracshytion Central Plateau Burkina Faso
Tied-Ridging Technology Traditional Tied with Machine Management Tied by Two One
Variable (donkey) Hand Passes Pass -------------------- hectares---------------------
Total Area Cultivated 55 56 56 55 Maize
Traditional 20 - - -With Tied Ridges 20 20 20
Red Sorghum Traditional 60 - - -With Tied Ridges 60 60 60
White Sorghum Traditional 80 51 With Tied Ridges 29 80 80
Millet Traditional 318 315 315 184 With Tied Ridges - 33 164
Peanuts 76 85 53 43
Total Cereals Production ---------------------- kgs------------------------Per Househol 2103 2436 2651 2737 Per Resident 150 174 189 196
Net Farm Income 3 000s FCFA-------------------Per Household 2153 2462 2535 2622 Per Worker 308 352 362 375
1 Labor times of 75 man hoursha for tying of the ridges by hand 20 man
hoursha to machine tie with two passes and 2 aan hours to machine tie with one pass Yield estimates in kgsha for traditional practices and the technical intervention of tied ridging are as follows maize (1090 to 1730) red sorghum (672 to 940) white sorghum (472 to 660) and milshylet (320 to 415) 1985 fertilizer and grain prices were used
2 Based on 14 residentshousehold Annualized cost of 4400 FCFA for tied-ridging machine subtracted in colshyumns 3 and 4 Based on 7 active workershousehold
46
and references) Decreases in yield and fertilizer efficiency however have been observed after two to five years of continuous cropping where organic matter has not been incorporated into the soil (Pieri 1985)
In Burkina Faso on-farm researcher-managed trials indicate that the response of maize yields to tertilizer on the relatively high fertilitycompound soils was not economically profitable (1982 FSU Annual Report 1983) On-farm farmer-managed trials indicated that fertilizer can be profitable when using fertilizer alone on sorghum (Table 2 column 3) There is however considerable risk for the farmer of losing the cash outshylay when fertilizer is used alone as demonstrated by the percentage of farmers who would have lost cash in Table 2 column 3 Both yield and profitability substantially inicrease however when tied ridges and fertilshyizer are used in combination as indicated in Table 2 column 4 Also as shown in column 4 the risk of losing the cash outlay from the purchase of fertilize substantially decreases when fertilizer and TR are used in comshybination Fertilizer in combination with TR for millet on millet land has also been shown to be profitable with only a modera e risk of farmers losshying the fertilizer cash outlay (Ohm et al 1985a)
A survey of four FSU villages in Burkina indicated a range of fertilshyizer use )n cereals from zero farmers in the sample of the northern village of Bangasse to 33 of the farmers in the southern village sample from Poedogo which has better land and higher rainfall In the more northern region fertilizer use is riskier due to lower and more erratic rainfall Average hectarage fertilized in the villages that used fertil zer ranged from 034 ha at Nedogo to 3 ha at Poedogo (Ohm et al 1985b) Although the use rate per hectare was not established field staff indicated it was substantially lower than the 100 kga of 14-23-15 fertilizer applied to most of the FSU trials in the villages
The evidence to date on fertilizer use in the WASAT suggests that comshyplex fertilizers are a technolegy that can be used at present but yields are highly variable and the incidence of fertilizer cash outlay loss by farmers is high unless combined with a water retention technique such as TR The risk of losing cash decreases in the higher soil fertility and higher rainfall areas Empirical evidence also suggests that fertilizer use or water retention techniques such as TR when used alone can be economshyically feasible but that when used together the profitability substanshytially increases Moreover the number of farmers losing cash decreases subFstantially as compared with the fertilizer only strategy
Indigenous Rock Phosphate The benefits of using indig ous rock phosphate deposits in the WASAT are potentially appealling in terms of logistcs transportation cost advantages and foreign exchange savings Workable deposits occur in Senegal Mali Niger Togo Benin Nigeria and Burkina Faso On-station and on-farm trials have however found the rock phosphate to have solubility problems (IFDC 1985 Pieri 1985) The comshybination of the low P release in a water-soluble form that is readily available for use by plants aid the low I-sorption capacity of the WASAT soils have resulted in poor agronomic performance from rock phosphate applications There is little or no potential for direct application of WASAT rock phosphate with the possible exception of the Mali (Tilemsi) and Niger (Tahoual) deposits (IFDC 1985)
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Two methods are used to increase the agronomic effectiveness of rock phosphate One method is to highly granulate the rock and the other method is acidulation Even when highly granulated the agronomic effrectiveness is low and several years of consecutive applications are required before significant yield increases are observed (IFDC 1985 FSU Annual Reports) After several years of application benefit-cnst ratios were still lower than other sources of phosphorous (IFDC 1985)
Four years of FSU on-farm farmer-managed trials in Burkina Faso using highly granulated Burkina rock phosphate (100 kgha rock phosphate with 50 kgha urea applied each year on the same plots) also indicated low benefitshycost ratios Benefit-cost ratios of less than one with a 50 subsidized rock phosphate price were obtained (Unpublished FSU data) In the same experiment benefit-cost ratios of 13 were obtained from a rock phosphate tied ridging treatment but the benefit-cost ratio decreased to 069 when unsubsidized prices were used FSU cooperator farmers did not like using the rock phosphate due to its poor agronomic performance and application problems due to its highly granulated form
IFDC has developed two processes for the partial acidulation of rock phosphate Acidulation with sulfuric or phosphoric acid converts the calshycium phosphate into a more soluble form Research on the agronomic effecshytiveness of partially acidulated rock phosphate in the WASAT has given conshyflicting results (Batiano et al 1985) Inconsistent results were obtained by FSU with 50 acidulated Burkina rock phosphate in a one year on-farm researcher-managed trial with sorghum and millet (Ohm et al 1985a) The partially acidulated rock phosphate is also highly granulated giving rise to farmer application problems
Few economic studies of acidulated rock phosphate are available for the WASAT When compared with single superphosphate the relative economic performance of acidulated rock phosphate on millet in Niger is generally lower but is not consistent across sites or years (IFDC 1985)
To be agronomically and economically feasible the solubility problems of rock phosphate will have to be overcome The present effectiveness of acidulation requires further on-farm testing Once rock phosphate became agronomically and economically feasible fertilizer plants and distribution networks would require several years to develop A source of sulfuric or phosphoric acid at economically feasible prices is also required (Pieri 1985) Thus rock phosphate appears to be a technology most appropriate in the intermediate run after the technical problems of solubility and applishycation are resolved economically at the farm level
Animal Manure and Compost Manure and compost are already being used effectively on fields near the compound although application and composting techniques could be more efficient (Pieri 1985 Table 11) The principal constraint to the increased use of manuring and composting is their finite supply Few organic waste materials are left once the household and animal feed requirements are met Manure availability will increase only when animals are penned to make collection possible However cattle are grazed on fallow land away from the living quarters and the labor involved in conshyfined rearing of animals is too great Cattle are also entrusted to herdshyers because of feed shortages close to the village As fallow land
48
declines in the old settlement areas it will be increasingly difficult to support cattle near the village and in the area in general
While animal manure and composting are agronomically and economically feasible for use around the compound area at present they do not representfarm management practices that will substantially increase cereal producshytion in the WASAT in the short and intermediate run because of their finite supply Their potential will only be realized in the long run when the farming system evolves from the dominant cereal-based system to a more intensive cereal-foragecash crop system that is able to support more liveshystock near the village
Mulch Crop residue mulch can reduce rainfall runoff and increase water infiltration but sorghum amid millet stalks in raw or compost form mayadd little to soil fertility (Pieri 1985 p 91) As with manure the principal limiting factor of mulch is its finite supply--especially in the northern half of the WASAT The demand for its uses as animal feed fuel and construction materia] leaves most fields bare by planting time and even when it is not all used the prevalent custom is to burn it Moreover crop residues (3 to 5 Tha) are not sufficient by themselvEs to increase soil fertility and writer retention capacity appreciably In addition applications of mulch (10 Tha) can give rise to nitrogen deficiency which can only be overcome by composting or the addition of nitrogen (Pieri 1985)
Plowinggreen manuring Significant yield increases from on-station and n-farm research have been observed from deep ploughing and tillagepractices which change the structure of the soil allowing better root establishment and improved water infiltration and storage (Nicou and Charreau 1985 I)ugue 1985) Most tillage in the WASAT is done by shalshylow manual cultivation (85 of farmers) or by shallow animal traction cultivation Little pre-plant ploughing or tillage is done because of the need to plant soon after a rain (within 2 to 3 days) The soil is genershyally too hard and the animals too weak at this time of year for effective ploughing to take place before a major rain
Green manuring can also increase the fertility of the soil and add to its water retention capacity (Pieri 1985) However this practice also requires deep ploughing to incorporate the plants into the soil To be effective pre-plant and deep ploughing and green manure incorporation all require substantial draft power which can only be given by healthy well fed double ox teams This type of draft power will be available only in the long run when the farming systems can support high level-maintenance of the draft animals
2) Labor Saving Technologies
Animal Traction An estimated fifteen percent of farms in the WASAT use animal traction--mainly for transport shallow weeding or shallow land-preparation plowing (Matlon 1985) (see Photograph 2 page 40) Farmshyers in general use only one mechanized operation rather than using animal traction for all the agricultural activities of soil preparation plantingand weeding (Jaeger 1985) To date animal traction usage in the WASAT can be characterized as iand using (extensive) Some studies have reported
49
significant farm area expansion from animal traction usage Animal tracshytion can perform weeding 6 to 7 times faster than manual weeding (Jaeger and Sanders 1985) Increased yield effects have been reported in the literature (mainly from ploughing) but the yield effects are generally small (Binswanger 1978)
In spite of low animal traction adoption in the WASAT at present it is a technology that is feasible for use in the short run Animal traction can be made more economically attractive to farmers Present internal rates of return can be doubled and tripled by higher utilization rates (Jaeger 1985) Higher utilization rates can be achieved by increasing the number of mechanized operations In the past many animal traction proshygrams have failed in the WASAT because utilization rates were not suffishyciently high Returns to first time users of animal traction in the first years of operation are generally low because learning curves can be as long as five years and is a deterrent to first time users (Jaeger and Sanders 1985) First time users can obtain the full benefit of nechanizatior quicker through farmer and animal extension training and an improved market for trained draft animals
Mechanical Ridge Tier To respond to the labor constraint in conshystructing tied ridges the IITASAFGRAD Agronomy Program designed a protoshytype mechanical ridge tier (MRT) (Figure 6) for animal traction (Wright and Rodriguez 1985) (see Photographs 7 and 9 pages 41 42) With FSU and IITA SAFGRAD collaboration ihe MRT was field tested as part of Burkinas 1985 national farming systems program (Nagy et al 1986a) Yield levels compare favorably between ridges constructed with animal traction and tied manually and those ridges made with the MRT When the two pass method is used (first ridging and then using the MRT) the MRT substantially reduces the labor requirements from an average 75 man hoursha for the manual tyingof animal traction ridges to 20 man hoursha The MRT operation requires only 2 to 3 additional hours above ridging alone when ridging and tying with the MRT are done simultaneously (one pass) Donkeys must be strong and healthy for the one pass method Oxen which are mainly available on the frontier clearly have an advantage and can easily do both operations simultaneously
Linear programming representative farm models indicate that while available labor constrains the tying of ridges manually to 11 ha (Table 3 column 2) the MRT can tie 32 ha when using the one-pass method (Table 3 column 4) and is highly profitable The profitability is further increased with the addition of fertilizer (Table 4) although hectarage under tied ridges decreases to 09 for manual tying and to 30 with the MRT because labor is required for fertilizer application Budget analysis also indishycates the profitability of the MRT urder vaiious prices and goodbad year weather scenarios (Nagy et al 1986a)
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10
9
3 Latch lever 8 30 cm ridger that allows soil to flow over the top
4 Rubber band (inner tube strip) 9 Handles of houe Manga (FAQ donkey weecer) 5 Latch adjuster (for correct angle and to 10 Bicycle cable to brake lever
compensate for wear in bearings shovels and latch)
Figure 6 The ITASAFGRAD mechanical ridge tier (donkey version)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
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Table 4 Whole farm modeling analysis of a tied ridging-fertilization technology combination with donkey traction Central Plateau Burkina Faso
Tied-Ridging Technology Traditional Tied with Machine Management Tied by Two One
Variable (donkey) Hand Passes Pass ------------------- hectares---------------------
Total Area Cultivated 55 56 57 56 Maize
Traditional 20 With Tied Ridges 20 15 15
Red Sorghum Traditional 60 With Tied Ridges 60 68 60
White Sorghum Traditional 80 70 With Tied Ridges 10 80 95
Millet Traditional 318 315 318 188 With Tied Ridges 05 127
Peanuts 76 86 79 71
Total Cereals Production -------------------- kgs Per Househol 2103 2604 2970 3354 Per Resident 10 186 212 240
Net Farm Income3 000s FCFA-------------------Per Household 2153 2532 2732 2964 Per Worker 308 362 390 423
ource Nagy et al 1985 Based un application of 100 kgha 14-23-15 fertilizer at planting and 50 kgha urea four weeks after planting (20 man hoursha labor requirement for each application) Labor times of 75 man hoursha for tying of the ridges by hand 20 man hoursha to machine tie with two passes and 2 man hoursha to machine tie in one pass Yield estimates in kgsha for trashyditional practices and the technological interventions of fertilization and tied ridges in combination are as follows maize - not fertilized (1090 to 1730) red sorghum (672 to 1236) white sorghum (472 to 913) and millet (320 to 660) 1985 fertilizer and grain prices were used Based on 14 residentshousehold
4 Annualized cost of 4400 FCFA for machine subtracted in columns 3 and 4 Based on 7 active workershousehold
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Information from farmer questionnaires and field staff indicates that the major problem with the MRT is its awkwardness However most farmers were able to operate the MRT fairly efficiently after 15 to 30 minute- in the field Several engineering features require redesigning but the overshyall consensus of the field trials is that the MRT or a machine similar to the MRT can be used at present not only as a labor-saving device but also as a yield-increasing technology
Herbicides Herbicides could be used to decrease the labor constraint in the peak-labor-demand plantingweeding period (Spencer 1985) At present acquiring herbicides in the WASAT is difficult and little research has been done to tailor herbicides to WASAT conditions Both broad leaf and slender leaf plants as well as various trees are grown in association in the same field and these are sensitive to different herbicides
Economic analysis in northern Nigeria (Ogungbile 1980) suggests that weeding either by animal traction or manually is more profitable than herbicides at present Herbicides will find an increasing role in the WASAT only when cropping intensities are increased to the point where they require more intensive weeding (Norman 1982) and when the opportunity cost of labor substantially increases (Ruthenberg 1980)
3) Improved Varietal Pesearch
Few improved varieties of food crops are used by farmers in the WASAT Significant yield increases for varietal improvement from on-station reshysearch have been observed but a large yield gap between on-station and onshyfarm yields exists especially for the staple crops of sorghum and millet Experimental results suggest that the cereal y6 eld gap is less for local than for improved cultivars (Matlon 1985) Yields from FSU on-farm trials in Burkina for improved maize red and white sorghum and cowpeas rarely exceeded the yields of local varieties of the traditional management treatments (FSU Annual Reports)
Analysis by ICRISAT of sorghum and millet cultivars indicate that the on-station selection procedures under a high management environment (high fertility tillage and water management) have resulted in elite cultivars being more management responsive than local varieties but at the same time inferior at lower management levels (Matlon 1985) This suggests that breeding objectives should include screening and selection procedures that can provide cultivars which also exploit moderate management levels and that there is a need to hasten the process of variety evaluation onto onshyfarm trials (Matlon 1985) With the current selection procedures the full impact from varietal development will only be felt in the WASAT when farmers utilize a higher degree of improved management practices--practices such as an MRT-fertilizer combination--which would not take place until the intermediate run Also even if change ocur in the present breeding objectives leading to the development of new varieties able to exploit moderate management levels these vayleties will only be available in the intermediate run (five to ten years)
4) Crop Associations
Experiment station studies of different crop associations have received increased attention in the WASAT over the past 15 years (Fussell
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and Serafini 1985) Significant aggregate biological yields from intensishyfying cereal-cowpea associations have been obtained in research station trials (Fussell and Serafini 1985 Muleba1985) Increased legume densishyties however are normally accompanied by serious insect infestation probshylems requiring pesticide spraying The role that biological nitrogen fixashytion has played in obtaining the increased aggregate yields in cerealshylegume associations in the WASAT is yet to be determined (Fussell and Serifini 1985) Studies have shown however that under WASAT water stress and mineral deficiency conditions some legumes may contribute to nitrogen losses (Pieri 1985)
On-farm researcher-iianaged trials indicate that the most limiting facshytors in the performance of cereal-cowpea association intensification are soil moisture and fertility (Ohm et al 1985a) Under favorable condishytions of moisture and fertility it is profitable to increase cowpeadensity but under less favorable conditions the present practice of the farmers seems to be more dependable and profitable (Ohm et al 1985a)Under improved management (tied ridges fertilizer and pesticides) cowpeadensities somewhat higher than those currently used by farmers appear to be economically viable (Ohm et al 1985a) There are however instances where increased cowpea density has decreased sorghum yields (Matlon 1983)
Socio-economic studies indicate that farmers are primarily concerned with maintaining cereal yields and that modifications in cowpea densities and cultural practices that decrease cereal yield will not be adopted bythe farmer (Sawadogo et al 1985 Diehl and Sipkens 1985 Matlon 1983)Labor data analysis indicates that intensified cereal-cowpea associations substantially increase planting and weeding requirements (Matlon 1983)Depending on the planting date intensification can change the distribution of labor demand and reduce the amount of labor required for final weedingbecause of the cowpeas competition with the weeds Although returns to labor can be greater under intensification farmers do cite lower cereal yields and increased labor demands as the prime reasons for not intensifyshying (Matlon 1983)
Limited research has been carried out on cropping associations involvshying trees in the WASAT Alley cropping--food crops grown in the alleyformed by rows of leguminous shrubs or trees--could form one basis for changing traditional shifting cultivation practices (Kang et al 1984)Alley cropping does possess many potential advantages such as providingmulch firewood biologically fixed nitrogen animal feed and erosion conshytrol However it is very management-intensive and has not been thoroughly researched in the WASAT
Some intensification of cereal and legume crops can take place in the intermediate run once the physical environment is improved but significant crop intensification alley cropping and biological nitrogen fixation would contribute their greatest potential in the long run after farmers first increase their cereal production
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Sequencing of Technologies and Farm Management Practices in the WASAT
With falling cereal yields and the decline of the bush-fallow system in high density population areas the first necessity is to develop new technology systems to increase cereal yields Based upon the information of the proposed technologies as to their present agronomic technical and economic feasibility (Table 1) the overall sequential pattern of technoshylogical adoption would be to use the technologies available in the short run to alleviate the soil fertilitvwater retention constraints ie fertilizer tied ridges diguettes and dikes This would require alleviatshying the labor constraint in the peak-labor-demand period of plantingweedshying through available labor-saving technologies ie animal traction and the MRT
Once the agronomic environment has been improved new variety developshyment will be facilitated The development of these varieties will take time and be available in the intermediate run as compared with the more immediate availability of the tied ridgingfertilization technology combishynation Crop association intensification and diversification and other long run technologies and farm management techniques would then be incorshyporated as they become technically feasible Thus the overall sequential pattern of technology adoption can be dichotomized into a) technologies for the present cereal based farming systems and b) technologies and farm manshyagement practices for the Euture (intensified) farming systems
Technologies for the Present Farming Systems
Production constraints household endowments and household decision making characteristics are heterogeneous in the WASAT leiding to differshyences in the technology requirements and adoption patterns of various households Thus the delineation of recommendation domains can aid the targeting of research extension and government policy and programs This section of the chapter first delineates a set of recommendation domains based on production constraints household characteristics and resource endowments The technologies available in the short run (Table 1) are then sequenced as to the probable adoption pattern within each recommendation domain
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Recommendation Domains Based on Production Constraints
The labor endowment shortage is homogeneous throughout the WASAT but access to land is not Old settlement high-population-density areas exhibit limited to zero fallow rotation due to the limited access to land In general land quality and yield in the older settlement areas is lower than on the frontier which has access to land ind utilizes the traditional bush-fallow system Both intensification and extensification options are available on the frontier whereas only the intensification options are available in the old settlement areas due to the limited access to land Thus technology adoption choices are different in the two areas and a delineation can be made on a population density basis as follows
A Old settlementhigh-population-density areas (ie Central Plateau Burkina Faso)
B Frontierlow-population-density areas
Recommendation domains can also be made on an agroclimatic basis Higher rainfall and relatively higher soil fertility in a general north to south direction within the WASAT vary technology requirements and expected adoption patterns
Recommendation Domains Based on Household Characteristics and Endowments
Farmers have been found to be mainly risk averse (Binswanger 1980 Dillon and Scandizzo 1978) However the risk aversion of farmers within a group may range between high risk aversion and low risk avoidance depending on their initial endowments ie wealth Theoretically the risk that a household will assume is positively correlated with household wealth-shywealth being largely embodied in livestock holdings (mainly cattle) Wealth can also be considered positively correlated with the ability of a household to invest in purchased inputs or absorb larger losses in a poor rainfall season Household characteristics are further delineated into the type cf traction (manual or animal) presently being used This leads to the following recommendation domains Ysed on the household characteristics of risk wealth and type of traction
I A high risk aver3e low wealth manual tillage household--may only adopt low riT technologies and has limited ability to buy purshychased inputs
II A low risk averse high wealth animal traction household--chance of technology adoption higher due to the greater ability to buy purchased inputs
III A low risk averse high wealth manual traction household--chance of technology adoption higher due to greater ability to buy purshychased inputs but has not yet made the transition to animal traction
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Six recommendation domains are presented in Table 5 based upon the household characteristics and population density (access to land) typoloshygies described earlier The recommendation domains are for the 500 to 900 mm annual rainfall regions The potential sequential adoption patterns of the available technologies in the short run for the present cereal based farming systems--complex fertilizers tied ridging animal traction and the MRT--are presented in Table 5 for each recommendation domain The sequencing patterns of the technologies for each recommendation domain are based on the previous discussion of farmers adoption strategies where technologies are adopted singly or in clusters in a logical agronomic and economR sequence This is discussed for each recommendation domain below
IA High Risk Averse Central Plateau Manual Households
With limited access to land limited ability to buy purchased inputs and high risk aversion the opportunities for the household in the first stage of technology adoption are to manually construct tied ridges and use other water retention techniques such as diguettes which use available famshyily labor Linear programming (LP) results indicate that up to 1 hectare could be put in tied ridges manually by the average household which would increase production and income (Table 3 column 1) Also survey results indicated that households used tied ridging at FSU village sites and did tied ridging between 13 and 1 hectare per household (Ohm et al 1985a) Tied ridging is agronomically feasible and economically profitable For this highly risk averse group tied ridging is especially attractive beshycause there is no ris 5of losing a cash outlay with only family labor being utilized for ridging
The next step in the sequence of technology adoption would involve a cash outlay Fertilizer is an option on the land in tied ridges espeshycially in the more southern regions of the WASAT where rainfall is higher Fertilizer use although profitable (Table 2 column 4 Nedogo) would be limited by the small hectarage under tied ridges and the tendency of this group of farmers to avoid risks
Animal traction in combination with the MRT would seem to be the next step in the sequence This combination is not only labor saving but yield increasing as well The addition of the MRT to the machinery complement increases the internal rate of return from 10 for animal traction fWeedshying) alone (Jaeger 1984) to between 30-40 on the Central Plateau LP analysis (Table 3 column 4) indicates that the combination of animal tracshytion and the MRT enables the construction of tied ridges on up to 65 of available cereal land on the average or representative farm and increases total cereals production and income above that of traditional practices and
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Table 5 Recommendation domains and likely sequential adoption patterns of technologies in the WASAT
1 2Household Central Plateau Frontier Characteristics A B
I High risk aversion 1 Manual tied ridges-diguettes 1 Animal traction 3
Low wealth endowment 2 Animal traction-MRT 2 MRT Manual traction 3 Fertilizer 3 Fertilizer
4 Improved varieties 4 Improved varieties
II Low risk aversion 1 Fertilizer 1 MRT High wealth endowment 2 MRT 2 Fertilizer Animal traction 3 Improved varieties 3 Improved varieties
III Low risk aversion 1 Fertilizer 1 Animal traction High wealth endowmont 2 Animal traction 2 MRT Manual traction 3 MRT 3 Fertilizer
4 Improved varieties 4 Improved varieties
1 High density population limited access to land and in general lower quality land than the Frontier
2 Low population density access to land and in generel higher quality land than the Central Plateau
T MRT - the mechanical ridge tier
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17
manual tied ridging With the increase in income households would then be in a better position to purchase fertilizers Internal rates of return for an animal traction-MRT-fertilizer combination range from 25-30 and increase production and income over the animal traction-MRT combination (contrast Table 3 column 4 with Table 4 column 4)
IB High Risk Averse Frontier Manual Households
Households included in this category could follow the manual tied ridgingdiguette regime of Type IA households on maize compound land but may find it as profitable and less labor constraining to maintain the bushshyfallow system for sorghum and millet and use animal traction The present internal rate of return using donkey and ox traction has been estimated to be 31 and 21 respcCtively for a frontier area but the rates of return can be doubled with increased utilization thus making the technology very profshyitable (Jaeger 1984) Next in the sequential adoption pattern would be the use of the MRT The use of the MRT by households may not be used conshycurrently with the introduction of animal traction but the incentive for its utilization would increase as population pressure increased and land became more scarce With internal rates of return of 35-40 for donkey traction and 25-30ior ox traction mechanical ridge tying at the frontier could be expected The third step in the sequence would be the addition of fertilizer
IlA Low Risk Averse Central Plateau Animal Traction Households
Animal traction households exhibiting a lower risk aversion and a greater ability to buy purchased inputs will likely find fertilizer as the best option particularly in the more southern areas of the WASAT with higher rainfall The option of using animal traction to extensify is not available because of the limited access to land and thus the next technolshyogy in the sequential adoption pattern would be to use animal traction to intensify using the MRT
IIB Low Risk Averse Frontier Manual Households
As in IB the extensification option of using animal traction will continue to dominate until increased population pressure limits access to land thus making the intensification option of using the MRT more attracshytive--especially in the northern areas of the WASAT where the rainfall is more limited and Aserratic soil fertility declines fertilizer will become more profitable
IIIA Low Risk Averse Central Plateau Manual Households
Households in this category are expected to choose fertilizer over manual tying of ridges because they have the ability to purchase it and are less averse to taking risk Manual tied ridging could also be an option at first but presented with the opportunity of using an animal traction-MRT combination households would probably choose the latter
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IIIB Low Risk Averse Frontier Manual Tillage Households
Although these households would not be averse to using the land-subshystituting inputs a higher payoff is likely to come from extensification using animal traction in the initial stages of technology introduction As population pressure on the higher quality land increases increased utilshyization of the MRT and fertilizer would be expected
In summary different sequential adoption patterns exist for the difshyferent recommendation domains Adoption is expected to be more rapid by those in the low risk aversehigh wealth categories Given the present levels of research exteksion and government program support some groups such as the high risk averselow wealth old settlement farmers may never adopt any of the technologies
Tied ridging chemical fertilizer and animal traction have all been potentially available to farmers in the WASAT over the last two decades Yet little adoption of these technologies for cereal production has taken place Our hypothesis for this lack of adoption is that while the indivishydual technologiuts may be technically and economically feasible the ecoshynomic impact of individual technologies for the level of risk involved has not been sufficiently high Both farm trials and whole-farm modeling indishycate a substantially higher impact from the simultaneous introduction of all three technologies including the MRT The combined introduction of these technologies alleviates the soil fertility soil water and labor constraints and provides tilarge economic incentive at low levels of risk
The requirement th t the available technologies be introduced simulshytaneously to satisfy farmers risk and profit levels before they will be adopted is in conflict with the empirical finding that farmers adopt innoshyvations sequentially An alternative is to wait until new technologies are developed that satisfy the high profit-low risk criteria so that they will be adopted individually in a sequential manner Another alternative is to use support programs in view of the pressing nature of the problems in the WASAT Support trograms would have to take into consideration the sequenshytial nature of adoption while trying to achieve total package adoption as quickly as possible Animal traction farmers may adopt an MRTfertilizer package simultaneously given high economic incentives and support programs but clearly for manual farmers (the majority) the combined introduction of animal traction the MRT and a fertilizer package all at once in one year is too great
The main thrust of the support program should be to select the first technology within each recommendation donain (Table 5) and provide economic incentives that make the level of risk of the technology acceptable to farmers For example the first technology in the sequence of recommendashytion domains IB and IIB (Table 5) is animal traction Support programs
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would be required to deal with the pre-conditions for animal traction adopshytion (as discussed in Chapters IV and V) and provide adequate economic incentives At a later period when farmers are acquainted with animal traction support programs would deal with the next technology in the sequence for each recommendation domain Following this procedure will reduce the adoption time between technologies within the package The supshyport programs should lead to the adoption of a soil fertility-water retention-labor saving technology package within each recommendation domain Without support programs technology adoption of the present techshynologies available to the WASAT will be very slow with some farmers--in particular the high risk averselow wealth farmers--not adopting any of the technologies
Technologies for Future Farming Systems
The long-run goal of technology introduction for future farming sysshytems is to change the upgraded dominant cereal-based farming system into a more intensified cereal-foragelivestock-cash crop farming systemInformation on the agronomic and economic feasibility of the technologies that may come into play in future farming systems is incomplete making it impossible to sequence the individual technologies as was done for technolshyogies available for present farming systems
Improvements in the present cereal-based farming systems will set the stage for a more intensive crop association and rotation regime Given the yield increase from the fertilizertied ridgesimproved variety combinashytion an estimation has been made that moderate cereal surpluses could be expected in the WASAT in the future with the adoption of these technologies (Savadogo 1986) This would make it possible to shift some production out of cereals and utilize available land labor and capital on more intensive cerealforagecash crop rotations--especially cereallegume rotations that could provide biological nitrogen fixation and reduce the costs of and dependency upon outside sources of nitrogen
Feed availability would increase livestock numbers and improve animal traction not only by better nutrition but also by shifting to more oxen power and away from the lower draft donkey power that dominates low qualityforage farming systems This would mean better crop residue incorporation and green manuring opportunities With increased livestock numbers in proximity to the household more manure would be available Although farmshyers would initially adopt these technologies sequentially the process of adoption would be an iterative one as the more intensive use of one techshynology allows a more intensive use of another ie increased forageallows more cattle to be kept near the compound resulting in more manure which in turn may allow more forage hectarage
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Footnotes
It would be more appropriate to measure risk in terms of a time series
variance (ie over many years) as opposed to a cross sectional varishyance method (ie over many farmers in one year) as used here Three years of data make it difficult to undertake a time series risk analyshysis For a textbook treatment of risk analysis see Anderson et al 1977
2 Tied ridges (TR) are small depressions made between crop rows either by
hand tillage or by a combination of animal traction and hand tillage When constructed by hand depressions 32 cm long x 24 cm wide x 16 cm deep spaced 1-12 meters apart are made between the rows When conshystructed with animal traction the fields are first ridged with a cultishyvator (houe manga) which is equipped with a middle sweep to create a furrow This is then followed by hand tillage to make a 16 cm high ridge perpendicular to the furrow every one to two meters The depresshysions catch and hold water after a rain and increase water infiltration and retention Due to the larger water holding capacity of animal tracshytion tied ridges water retention ability is greater than that of manually tied ridges
One exception should be noted Traditionally maize is grown on the relshyatively higher fertility compound land Three years of on-farm researcher-manageu trials experimenting with maize on non-compound land with TR in general did not show significant yield increases (FSU Annual Report 1983 Lang et al 1984 and Ohm et al 1985a) These expershyiments appear to indicate the need to first utilize organic material or fertilizer to convert the less fertile land into the equivalent of comshypound land before putting the tied ridges on it if maize is to be grown there
4 All the FSU economic analyses have been carried out using subsidized fertilizer prices (40 to 50) Clearly the economic profitability would be lower and the incidence of fertilizer cash outlay loss greater utilizing unsubsidized prices
Trials examining the possibility of growing maize on good sorghum land and sorghum on good millet land by upgrading the soil through a fertilshyizertied ridge combination were also conducted Three years of onshyfarm researcher-managed maize on sorghum land trials proved inconclushysive (FSU Annual Reports) and although a sorghum on millet land experishyment showed promise sorghum plant establishment was a problem (Ohm et al ]985a)
6 The observed farmer adoption rates in different regions correlate well
with experimental evidence which sugests that yields are less variable and more responsive to fertilizer and that there is less risk of losing fertilizer cash outlay as rainfall levels and land quality improves
62
When questioned farmers said that they saw the value of fertilizer but that credit and availability were obstacles to greater use All complex fertilizers are imported from outside the WASAT and usually distribution within each country is handled by a para-statal organization
8 An FSU on-farm farmer-managed experiment involving tied ridges and
mulch (5 Tha) on maize was conducted in two village sites in Burkina in 1984 (Ohm et al 1985a p 17) The mulch part of the experiment was abandoned since only 6 of the 50 farmers had access to sufficient mulch
The MRT is attached to an animal drawn cultivator with one large middle sweep The MRT is essentially a paddle wheel (45 cm in diameter) with four paddles one scraping the ground building up earth until it is tripped by the operator every 1-12 to 2 meters to create the tie in the furrow between the two ridges
10 Analysis of five management factors--plowing tied ridges fertilization
timing planting arrangement and weeding timing--indicated that the major determinants of the yield gap between the experiment station and farmers fields were plowing and tied ridges (Matlon 1985) Also the major problems observed in the on-farm trials with the elite cultivars are drought and heat stress related leading to poor seedling establishshyment and poor flowering and grain filling ability Spittlebug problems have occurred on the new sorghum variety of Framida (Ohm et al 1985b) and striga continues to be a problem with most new sorghum varieties
11 The development of hybrid varieties such as the hybrid sorghums bred for
the Sudan (Gebisa 1986) may play a role in obtaining moderate level management response The poor marketing infrastructures of the WASAT however vould prevent hybrids from being a technology that could be used in the short run Present breeding for disease and pest resistance in sorghim and millet is encouraging (Andrews 1986 Andrews et al 1985) and is expected to play an important role in increasing cereal yields in the intermediate run
12 Empirical evidence linking reduced risk aversion with higher levels of
wealth is not available in the WASAT It has been a standard part of decision theory that at higher levels of wealth risk aversion would decrease (Anderson et al 1977) This proposition seems to be consisshytent with field interviews with farmers about their objectives (see Chapter IV page of this report)
13 Not included among the categories is a high risk averse low wealth
animal traction household While this category undoubtedly exists in the WASAT the number of households in this category would alot be large
14 The recommendation domains presented in Table 5 are discussed at the
inter-household level which considers resource endowments and decisionshymaking in the context of a family unit vis-a-vis another family unit
63
The recommendation domains could also be discussed at the intrashyhousehold level which considers differences--in gender age and access to and control of resources within the household--which may lead to difshyferences in the sequencing and types of technologies adopted by the various sub-groups (see McKee 1983 Nagy et al 1985)
15 The opportunity cost of labor (wage rate from outside employment) ranges
from 30 to 50 FCFAhr (FSU unpublished survey data) At an opportunity cost of 35 FCFAhr farmers would not have lost money by undertaking the construction of tied ridges (Table 2)
16 Calculations made using the procedure by Jaeger (1984) and adding apshy
propriate costs and revenues based on FSU on-farm farmer-managed trials to estimate the yield increases from the use of the MRT (Ohm et al 1985b Nagy et al 1986)
17 The weekly available labor hour figures used in the model are based on
conservative estimates Increasing the labor availabilities by 10 to 20 for the tied ridging period andor allowing tied ridging to also take place in the following period results in tied ridges being conshystructed on all the cereal land
CHAPTER VI
POLICY IMPLICATIONS AND FUTURE AVENUES FOR RESEARCH AND EXTENSION
This report has proposed that the overall sequence of technology intervention for the WASAT is 1) technologies that improve the agronomicenvironment ie water retention and soil fertility improvement With appropriate policy and institutional support this technology combination can be immediately implemented 2) the use when they become available of improved varieties that can exploit moderate input levels If varieties are developed for the moderate input levels recommended in 1) above this techshynology is expected to be available for farmer adoption in the next five to ten years and 3) more intensive livestockcereal systems in the better agricultural areas and a shift back to extensive grazing and forestry in the more marginal agricultural regions There are many types of technolshyogies for those intensive livestockcerealcash crop systems that can now be productively studied on the experiment station and in on-farm trials so that these systems can be available to farmers after the next decade
The first priority of the agricultural policy research and extension community in the WASAT is to develop technologies to increase the yields of the cereal-based systems dominate the The presentfarming which area focus should be on alleviating the low soil fertilitylow soil water retenshytion constraints Complex fertilizers the water retention methods of tied ridges diguettes and dikes and the labor-saving technologies of animal traction and the mechanical ridge tier are a]rady available for extension in much of the region
Tied ridging chemical fertilizer and animal traction however have all been potentially available to farmers in the WASAT for more than two decades Yet there has been little adoption by WASAT food crop producers of any of these three innovations This is because there was little ecoshynomic incentive to adopt these technologies prior to the 1960s because food consumption needs were being met Moreover there was little export demand for sorghum and millct Hence there was little demand for new cereal technologies However with increased population recent droughtsand the deterioration of the soil quality in the higher population regions during the intervening years the demand for new cereal technology has subshystantially increased
Credit fertilizer and animal traction non-availability and lack of information have all been cited as reasons for the low level of farmer adoption of the above technologies in the WASAT From our perspective the principal reason for the failure to adopt these individual components is that the economic impact of each of the three components has not been sufshyficiently high by itself Fertilizer utilization is too risky in poorrainfall years without some simultaneous method to increase the availabilshy
water the critical times of plant development themselves do not resolve the low soil fertility problem Family labor
ity of at Tied ridges by
65
availability constrains the amount of tied ridging construction It apshypears from the on-farm trials and the whole-farm modeling results that all three technologies (including the MRT) would need to be introduced togetherbefore economic incentive and risk levels are adequate for technology adoption Introducing the technologies together would alleviate the soil fertiltty soil water and labor constraints and provide high economic incentives at levels of risk that would be attractive to farmers However as previously discussed farmers adopt technologies sequentially and not as a package
An option is to wait for the research community to develop new techshynologies that will individually provide a sufficient economic incentive at a level of risk that is attractive to farmers Another option is to develop support programs that will enable farmers to sequentially adopt the available technologies en route to total package adoption The review of the constraints to cereal production and the review of the available and future technologies for the WASAT (Chapters IV and V) point out that such individual technologies will not be available in the short run and will probably not be available in the intermediate run (10-15 years) The pressing problems of the WASAT require more immediate solutions which can only be brought about by support programs to facilitate the adoption of the available technologies If the package of available technologies is introshyduced without special government programs farmers are expected to adoptthe technologies in the sequence given for each recommendation domain as outlined in Chapter V (Table 5) Adoption by recommendation domain would vary with those in the low risk aversehigh wealth categories adopting the technologies first groups such asSome the high risk averselow wealth old settlement farmers may never adopt any of the technologies
Implementation of a support program to increase the present cereal production in the WASAT would include
a) credit programs for the cash outlays required by farmers for fershytilizer and animal traction
b) farm mnagement information especially on efficient utilization of animal traction and fertilizer from the extension service
c) development of the input and product markets
thrustA main of the support program would be to select the technologieswithin each recommendation dolvin that farmers would most likely adopt
described Ta|IlAfirst (as in 5) and provide the economic incentives and pre-conditions for farmers to adopt the technology Once farmers become acquainted with the technology the next technology would be supported in a similar manner and so on until the total technology package was adoptedAppropriate economic incentives and pre-conditions would ensure that techshynology adoption proceeded as quickly as possible so that all the farmers could adopt the total package in the shortest possible time
66
To facilitate new-technology introduction some of the potential typesof research and extension institutional support programs are mentioned below
Priorities for Extension and Local Governments
The highest priorities for extension and local government agencies involve focusing on the soil fertilitywater retention technologies of manshyual tied ridging diguettes and dikes complex fertilizers animal traction and the mechanical ridge tier These technologies should be put forward on demonstration fields (using local farmer participation where appropriate) individually and as packages for each of the recommendation domains
There is a role for local government agencies in the construction and maintenance of large dikes and barriers to regulate the speed of rainfall runoff at the village level Within each region individual households would either construct tied ridges andor diguettes--whichever is the most appropriate for the area Where diguettes are used assistance from local government agencies may be required for correct contour placement
A critical role will have to be undertaken by extension agencies to ensure that the appropriate preconditions exist for animal traction adopshytion The preconditions of shorter learning curves for both the farmer and draft animals and higher utilization rates can be facilitated by animal traction programs Extension agencies could be involved in training farmshyers (technical operation and animal maintenance) and in the training of draft animals until a draft animal market develops Shortening the learnshying curve will itseli increase utilization rates which can be further increased by an appropriate complement of implements including the mechanshyical ridge tier
Priorities for On-Farm Testing
The prototype IITA mechanical ridge tier requires further modificashytions at the engineering level to reduce its weight and awkwardness and increase its adaptability for hook-up with a wide range of cultivatorplow equipment (Nagy et al 1986a) Other possibilities include an automatic tripping device and even new design concepts which need to be rigorously field tested with farmer participation As modifications and new design concepts are developed they must be made available to the extension system and local manufacturers and provisions made for information feedback to the on-farm testing agencies The mechanical ridge tier is an implement that can be made locally and every attempt by the local extension agencies to provide prototype copies to local manufacturers should be undertaken Locally-made mechanical ridge tiers enable location-specific adaptations arising from a local manufacturerfarmer interchange
Priorities also include further on-farm testing of diguettes and of modifications of diguettes and barriers Further on-farm testing across the WASAT of raw and acidulated rock phosphate from all the major rock
67
phosphate deposits in the WASAT is required to evaluate the agronomic and economic feasibility of this technology
Priorities for Experimental Research Stations
On-station crop improvement programs require a change in the presentemphasis on screening and selection under high management conditions--manshyagement conditions much higher than can be provided by WASAT farmers in the intermediate run Thus crop improvement programs in the WASAT should conshycentrate on developing varieties that show stability over time and exhibit a response curve that exploits moderate management levels Selection must be focused on resistance to important pests and diseases as well as producshytion superiority under varying levels of soil productivity and available soil moisture--all of which contribute to production stability This change in crop development goals requires new screening and selection proshycedures and an increased interdisciplinary effort between on-station and on-farm research
The designing of labor-saving devices for fertilizer applicationplanting and other field operations should be further studied for both manual and animal traction farmers where applicable Research on water retention methods other than tied ridges or diguettes is required for those areas where these two technologies are not effective especially on the sandier soils characterizing much of the Sahelo-Sudanian zone
CHAPTER VII
SUMMARY
Whole-farm modeling was critical in identifying the potential effect of new technologies and in evaluating the seasonal labor bottleneck As onshyfarm trials produce more technologies that pass the yield and profit criteria whole farm modeling analysis will become increasingly important to identify the interactions of technology components and estimate their potenshytial impact at the farm level
A major contribution of the Purdue farming systems research project was not the identification of the individual constraints but rather a study of their interconnected nature It is necessary for farming systems research projects to concentrate on the well-known synergistic nature of agricultural inputs and not be satisfied with minimum cost input changes which also have minimal effects on yields or profits
The seasonal labor constraint has been stressed as the principal barshyrier to agricultural development in the WASAT and in other semi-arid areas in Africa However a more agronomic orientation to the analysis of the water requirement and 1oil fertility problems was necessary The combined effect of improved water retention increases in soil fertility and overshycoming the seasonal labor bottleneck with the mechanical tied ridger had a substantial impact on farm income Since the combined effects are much larger than the individual effects it is unfortuuiLte that farmers tend to adopt one input at a ime Governmental support of the combined practices appears to be necessary to facilitate their combined introduction
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77
APPENDIX 1
Administrative Report
In December 1978 Purdu University was awarded a two year contract with the US Agency for International Development to establish and operate a farming systems research unit in Burkina Faso as one of the components of the Semi-Arid Food Grain Research and Development Program (SAFGRAD)
This contract AFR-C-1472 had several mandates
1 Analyze small farm conditions and application of new technologies to those conditions
2 Formulate strategies regarding development and application of small farm relevant technology
3 Develop recommendations regarding physical research priorities and
4 Design help organize and analyze farmer field trials and studies as a means of performing the above
After several extensions the contract was amended in 1985 to reflect an additional set of objectives
1 Complete the transfer of the farming systems research methodology and techniques gained under this contract to national research organizashytions in the SAFGRAD countries
2 Finalize analysis of empirical research results
3 Finalize and publish guidelines for the methodological analytical or organizational and operational conduct of FSR in the SAFGRAD region
4 In conjunction with the SAFGRAD coordination office complete the groundwork for a West African regional FSR network
The termination of the project occurred on June 30 1986 Field activities in Burkina Faso were maintained through March 31 1986
The body of this report provides a description of the achievements of the project in terms of its mandate This section is the administrative report covering the implementation of this contrast
Contractor staff were provided logistic support by USAID in accordance with local AID procedures this included housing and utilities furniture household equipment and medical facilities to our long term staff In addition two vehicles were provided to our team for the duration of the project These vehicles were financed outside our contract but from SAFGRAD project funds
Initially the Purdue University team comprising an agricultural economist agronomist and rural sociologist were to be provided office
78
space at the Kamboinse Research station outside the city limits of Ouagadougou At the onset the FSU office was established in Ouagadougou then moved to Kamboinse however because the vehicles provided were not very reliable and transportation problems for local hire staff created major problems the office was relocated in Ouagadougou in agreement with SAFGRAD and USAID The FSU team continued to closely work with the ICRISAT and IITA teams who had responsibility for other resetrch components of the SAFGRAD program
At Purdue University a steering committee composed of the departments heads of Agronomy Agricultural Economics and SociologyAnthropology was established to guide activities of the FSU It frequently met to evaluate progress discuss issues relevant to the project and to formulate overall strategy for achieving project objectives
Technical coordination and backstopping for the project was maintained on the Purdue campus during the entire project period Dr Wilford H Morris provided this service from 1978 to June 1983 and Dr John H Sanders from July 1983 to termination On-campus administrative and logistic support was provided by the Office of International Programs in Agriculture under the directorship of T Kelley White and D Woods Thomas Other administrative staff responsible for project activities were Dr James L Collom associate director IPIA and Mrs Katy Ibrahim administrative assistant for the FSU project
In addition Dr Thomas was a participant of the SAFGRAD Technical Advisory Committee (TAG) and Consultative Committee (CC) of the SAFGRAD which met yearly in Burkina Faso These committees were a channel for review of all SAFGRAD activities in WestCentral Africa
During the seven and a half years the FSU project existed a total of nine long-term staff were on site in Burkina Faso for a total of 225 person months (PM)
Paul Christensen agronomist acting chief-of-party February 1979 to December 1981 - 33 PM
Richard Swanson rural sociologist October 1979 to July 1983 - 46 PM
Ram Singh economist and chief of party April 1979 to Macch 1981 - 24 PM
William Jaeger economistcomputer analyst December 1981 to June 1983 - 19 PM
Ronald Cantrell agronomistchief of party February 1982 to January 1984 - 23 PM
Mahlon Lang economist February 1982 to April 1984 - 26 PM
Herbert Ohm agronomistchief of party August 1983 to August 1985 -24 PM
Christopher Pardy economistcomputer analyst December 1983 to Tune 1983 - 16 PM
79
Joseph Nagy economistchief of party July 1984 to April 1985 14-
PM
In addition several short-term technical staff and consultants traveled to Burkina Faso for a total of 185 PM They are as follows
In 979 Kenneth Jones computer specialist at Purdue spent 50 PM to assist our in-country staff in organizing the data management That same year Ms Annie Buryer a sociologist spent 3 months in the field assisting our rural sociologist in setting up the village questionnaires In 1980 Herbert Butler rural sociologist spent 50 PM assisting in the analysis of the collected research dava In 1981 Stan Cohen computer specialist and agricultural economist spent 4 PM in the analysis of socio-economic data Len Malczynski computer specialist also spent 75 PM in the field in organizing the data Iandiing systems Anne-Marie Kaylen MS candidate in the Department of Agricultural Economics spent eight 1PM in the field to collect data for her thesis
Wilford H Morris technical coordinator for the FSU spent 200 PM in the field to provide support to our in-country team
In 1983 Jon Brandt agricultural economist spent 50 PM in Burkina Faso to assist Kirnseyinga Sawadogo in the collection of data for his PhD Thesis In 1984 Charles Rhykerd agronomist and soil specialist spent 75 PM oking with our staff in collecting soil samples and providing agronomLc support to our staff John Sanders as on-campus technical coordinator spent a total of 100 PM in the field working -ith the field economists
Purdue administrative staff also traveled to Burkina Faso during the existence of this project for a total of 45 person months
PM
T Kelley White acting director IPA 50 Paul Farris Head Agricultural Economics Dept 25 D Woods Thomas Director IPIA 150 Katy Ibrahim Administrative Assistant FSU 100 John Sanders Technical Coordinator 75 James L Collom Associate Director IPIA 50
Purdue University also conducted an internal evaluation of project activities in Burkina Faso in 1984 Members of the team who spent one week in-country were
Bernard Liska Dean School of Agricul-ire William Dobson Head Agricultural Economics Department Marvin Phillips Head Agronomy Department D Woods Thomas Director and Associate Dean International Programs in Agriculture
Sawadogo Sibiri participated in the On-Farm Experimentation Workshop University of Harare Zimbabwe (co-sponsored with CIMMYT) February 6-24
80
1984 the East Africa Agricultural Economics Program CIMMYT Nairobi Kenya October 27 to November 6 and in the evaluation of FSR programs with ACPOs in Senegal February 24 to March 1
Three Burkinabe staff enrolled at Purdue University for additional long-term training
Paul Compaore Agricultural Economics MS 1983-1985 Baya Toe Agricultural Economics MS 1983-1985 Kimseyinga Savadogo Agricultural Economics PhD 1979-1986
All have returned to Burkina Faso Dr Savadogo as a professor at the University of Ouagadougou Paul Compaore and Baya Toe are working in the Burkinabe Ministry of Agriculture
All of these educational activities contributed significantly to quality and dependable data collection and team spirit In addition these --aining activities were a significant factor in the transfer of host country technical and research staff to the national agricultural research program IBRAZ
Training for US graduate students was also made possible throughthis project Ms Anne-Marie Kaylen spent eight months in the field colshylecting data for her MS thesis in agricultural economics Also three graduate students funded under the PurdueINTSORMIL project spent eight months each in Burkina Faso working with our staff in support of the project while collecting data for their field research These were Michael Roth PhD Kimseyinga Savadogo PhD and Ann Bukowski MS Under FSU auspices William Jaeger developed his PhD dissertation on the economics of animal traction in Burkina Faso
The Farming Systems Unit project cooperated in the conduct of two regional workshops In September 1983 in cooperation with ICRISAT and IRAT a regional workshop on farmers participation in the development and evaluation of technology was held in Ouagadougou The proceedings of this workshop were published by che International Develpoment Research Centre In April 1985 the FSU in conjunction with the SAFGRAD Coordination Office conducted a workshop on technologies appropriate for farmers in semi-arid West Africa The proceedings of this workshop (in English and French) were distributed widely by the Office of International Programs in Agriculture
Thirty-six research-based technical papers were written and disshytributed under FSU auspices (See Appendix 2 for a listing of these publications)
The Farming Systems Unit project was not without administrative andor logistical problems Included were such things as unavoidable delays in transfer of funds to the field inadequacy of in-country transportation arrangements imperfection in project design establishing FSU relationshipwith national agricultural institutions and international development assistance organizations internal and international political events and the lack of ex-ante long-term contractual and funding commitments Excellent cooperation among the US national regional and international organizations involved in the program made it possible to resolve such issues with minimal impact on project productivity
81
Purdue University is deeply grateful to the OAUSTRC the SAFGRAD and its Consultative and Technical Advisory Committees USAIDOuagadougou AID Washington the government of Burkina Faso ICRISAT IITA and other enshytities for their assistance and cooperation in the conduct of this project Without such the objectives of this ambitious research could not have been attained
82
APPENDIX 2
Publications List
1 FSUSAFGRAD Staff Questionnaire Utilises pour le Etudes Sur les Systems de Production Agricoles Dans Des Villages Echantillons de Haute Volta Farming Systems Unit Project International Programs inAgriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana January 1980
2 Saunders M 0 Farming Systems Research Unit Working papers (1)Agriculture in Upper Volta The Institutional Framework (2) LocalEcology Population and Ethnic Groups in Upper Volta and (3) TheMossi Farming Systems in Upper Volta International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1980
3 Bruyer A Towards a Use of Survey Materials Report on Zone of Zorgho Farming Systems Unit Project International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana May 1980
4 Christensen P J Observations on the Major Classification of Field Trials Used in Farming Systems Research Farming Systems Unit Project International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana January 1981
5 Christensen P J Rock Phosphate Fertilizer in Upper Volta Part 1 Preliminary Report on Policy Implications of Cereal YieldCharacteristics Farming Systems Unit Project International Programsin Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana April 1981
6 Christensen P J and R A Swanson SAFGRADFSU 1981 Research Programs Farfling Systems Unit Project International Programs inAgriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana April 1981
7 Cohen S Costs and Returns of Household Crop Production NedogoUpper Volta Department of Agricultural Economics Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana September 1982
8 Lang M R Cantrell and J IfSanirs Identifying Constraints and Evaluating New Techology in the Purdue Farming Systems Project in Upper Volta in C B Flora (ed) Animals in the Farming SystemKansas State University Manhattan Kansas pp 184-206 1984
9 Jaeger W K Animal Traction and Resource Productivity Evidence from Upper Volta in C B Flora (ed) Animals in the Farming ystem ibid pp 431-460 1984
10 Singh R D E W Kehrberg and W H M Morris Small FarmProduction Systems ii Upper Volta Descriptive and Productive Function Analysis Experiment Station Bulletin Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1984
11 Lang M G and 24 Roth Risk Perceptions and Risk Management byFarmers in Burkina F-aso Paper presented at the Annual FarmingSystems Conference at Kansas State University in 1984
83
12 Rhykerd C L Constraints and Research Needs for Livestock Production in Upper Volta International Programs in AgriculturePurdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1984
13 Sanders J H The Evolution of Farming Systems Research Towards Where International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1984
14 Roth M and J H Sanders An Economic Evaluation of AgriculturalTechnologies and Implications for Development Strategies in Burkina Faso International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana First presented at the Annual Farming SystemsConference at Kansas State University in 1984
15 Lang M G and R C Cantrell Accenting the Farmers Role Purdue Farming Systems Unit in P Matlon R Cantrell D King and M Benoit-Cattin (edited) Coming Full Circle Farmers Participation inthe Development of Technology International Developmernt Research Center Ottawa Canada pp 63-70 1984
16 Lang M H Ohm and R Cantrell Adaptability Analysis of Farmer-Managed Trials in Farming Systems Research International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1985
17 Lang M G Agricultural Production and Marketing Activities of Women in Burkina Faso International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1985
18 Lang M G Crop and Livestock Marketing Patterns in Burkina FasoInternational Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1985
19 Pardy C R Cereal Sales Behavior Among Farm Households in FourVillages in Burkina Faso International Programs i- AgriculturePurdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1985
20 Nagy J G and H W Ohm Economic Analysis of Tied Ridges and Fertilization in Farmer-Managed Sorghum Trials in Burkina Faso Paperpresented at the International Conference of AgricultLal Economists Malaga Spain 1985
21 Nagy J G L L Ames and H W Ohm Tecchnology Evaluation PilicyChange and Farmer Adoption in Burkina Fa Paper presented at the Farming Systems Symposium Kansas State University Manhattan Kansas 1985
22 Schaber L A Literature Review of Soil Fertility in the West Africa Semi-Arid Tropics (WASAT) International Programs in AgriculturePurdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1985
23 Sanders J H J G Nagy and B Shapiro Developing and EvaluatingNew Agricultural Technology for the Sahel A Case Study in Burkina Faso Submitted to Economic Development and Cultural Change 1985
84
24 Ohm H W and J G Nagy (Editcrs) Appropriate Technologies for Farmers in Semi-Arid West Africa International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1985 359 pages (also available in French)
25 Roth M P Abbott J Sanders and L McKinzie An Application of Whole-Farm Modelling to New Technology Evaluation Central Mossi Plateau Burkina Faso International Programs in Agriculture Purdue bniversity West Lafayette Indiana 1986
26 Diallo N N and J C Nagy Burkini Faso Access and Control of Resources in the Farming Systems Recent Legal Political and Socio-Economic Changes Paper presented at the Conference on Gender Issues in Farming Systems Research and Extension Gainesville Florida February 1986
27 Nagy J C and L L Ames Evaluation of New Technologies in Burkina Faso Using Whole Farm Modelling Paper presented at the Annual Conference of American Agricultural Economists Reno Nevada 1986
28 Sanders J H and B Shapiro Agricultural Technology Development in Burkina Faso in Chapter 12 of Y Moses (ed) Proceedings African Agricultural Develompent Conference Technoloiy Ecology and Society California State Polytechnic Institute Pomona California 1986
29 Nagy J G H W Ohm L L Ames and L D Schaber Analysis of IITASAFGRAD Mechanical Ridge Tier International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1986
30 Nagy J G H W Ohm and S Sawadogo Burkina Faso A Case Study of the Purdue UniversitySAFGRAD Farming Systems Project forthcoming in the Florida Farming Systems Project Case Studies Series 1986
31 Ames L L A Preliminary Report on the Evaluation of New Technologies in Burkina Faso International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1986
32 Annual Report (English) 1979
33 Annual Report (English) 1980
34 Annual Report (English) 1982
35 Annual Report (English amp French) 1983
36 Annual Report (English amp French) 1984
37 Annual Report (English) 1985
38 End of Project Report 1986
85
Theses List
1 Kaylen A M Current Farming Conditions in Nedogo and Digre Upper Volta MS Thesis Department of Agricultural Economics Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana August 1982
2 Jaeger W K Agricultural Mechanization The Economics of Animal Traction in Burkina Faso Stanford University unpublished PhD thesis 1984 To be published as a book by Westview Press
3 Bukowski AS Performance of Grain Markets in Selected Areas of Burkina Faso MS Thesis Department of Agricultural Economics Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana May 1986 Utilized some of the data and research support from the FSU project in Upper Volta but was directly supported by INTSORMIL
4 Roth M An Econoimc Evaluation of Agricultural Policy in Burkina Faso West Africa A Sectoral Modeling Approach unpublished PhD dissertation Department of Agricultural Economics Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana May 1986 Utilized some of the data and research support from the FSU project in Upper Volta but was directly supported by INTSORMIL
5 Savadogo K An Analysis of the Economic and Socio-Demographic Determinants (E Household Food Consumption in Ouagaodugou Burkina Faso unpublished PhD dissertation Department of Agricultural Economics Purdvr University West Lafayette Indiana 1986
LIST OF TABLES
Table Page
1 Present technical and economic feasibility and time frame of proposed technologies and farm management practices for the WASAT
38
2 Economic analysis of farmer-managed trials of sorghum with fertilizer and tied ridges Nedogo and Diapangou 1981 and 1984
43 - a
3 Whole farm modeling analysis of tied ridging with donkey traction Central Plateau Burkina Faso
45
4 Whole farm modeling analysis of a tied ridging fertilization 51 technology combination with donkey traction Central Plateau Burkina Faso
5 Recommendition domains and likely sequential adoption patterns of available technologies in the WASAT
57
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure Page
1 West African Sahelian and Sudanian zones 2
2 FSU research sites and climatic zones Burkina Faso 4
3 Stages of the research process 15
6 Schematic view of farming systems 17
5 Flow chart for new technology evaluation in farm trials 19
6 The IITASAFGRAD mechanical ridge tier 50
LIST OF ACRONYMS
ANOVA Analysis of Variance CIAT Centro Internacional 6e Agricultura Tropical CIMMYT Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maiz y Trigo FCFA Franc Communaut6 Financire Africaine FSR Farming Systems Research FSSP Farming Systems Support Project FSU Purdue UniversitySAFGRAD Farming Systems Unit IARC International Agricultural Research Center IBRAZ Institut Burkinabamp de Recherches Agronomiques et Zootechniques ICARDA International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas ICRISAT International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid
Tropics iFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development IFDC International Fertilizer Development Center IITA International Institute of Tropical Agriculture ILRAD International Livestock Research and Development Program INTSORMIL International SorghumMillet Program IPIA International Programs in Agriculture (Purdue University) IRAT Institut de Recherches Agronomiques Tropicales et des Cultures
Vivri~res IRRI International Rice Research Center MRT Mechanical Ridge Tier NARC National Agriculture Research Center OAU Orgacization of African Unity PCV Peace Corps Volunteer SAFGRAD Semi-Arid Food Grain Research and Development Program USAID United States Agency for International Development WASAT West African Semi-Arid Tropics
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
Food production and consumption trends in the Third World over the past two decades have shifted world attention from Asia to Sub-Saharan Africa (Paulino and Mellor 1984) The Green Revolution in Asia--the increase in rice and wheat yields brought about by improved varieties and an expanded use of fertilizer and other purchased inputs--has greatly increased Asian per capita food production (Pinstrup-Andersen and Hazell 1985) A similar Green Revolution phenomenon however has not yet taken place in sub-Saharan Africa One of the areas of most concern in Sub-Saharan Africa is the geographical region of the West African semi-arid tropics (WASAT) Current food production and population growth trends have led many to adopt a Malthusian perspective about the future of the WASAT
The countries of the WASAT include Senegal Gambia Burkina Faso the southern portions of Mauritania Mali Niger and Chad and the northern portions of Ghana Benin Ni eria and Cameroon (Norman et al 1981) Troll (1966) defines semi-ard tropics as regions where precipitation exceeds potential evapotranspiration for 2 to 7 months of the year Figure I delineates the principal climatic zones in the WASAT based on annual rainfall levels (09 probability isohyets of 1931-60 rainfall data)
The WASAT is one of the poorest regions in the world with 1984 per capita yearly incomes for countries in the area ranging between $US 80 and $US 300 (McNamara 1985) The region as a whole has balance of trade and balance of payments problems The economies depend heavily on foreign aid borrowing and worker remittances People (labor) are one of the biggest exports from the region--an estimated 25 of the labor force of Burkina Faso works in neighboring non-WASAT areas (World Bank 1981) The region exhibits a bottom-heavy age pyramid with country population growth rates ranging between 25 to 30 per ear and a fertility rate averaging 65 children per adult female The growth in per capita food production (1971shy1984) for the region as a whole is negative while levels of food imports (largely from donor agencies) have increased dramatically over the last 25 years (McNamara 1985 Paulino and Mellor 1984)
The declining food production per capita is associated with the conshytinuing droughts of the 1968-73 and 1976-80 periods (Nicholson 1982) and the most recent 1984 drought Other factors such as inadequate economic incentives for farmers and the failure to adapt and adopt new agricultural technologies have also been cited as explanations for the failure of food production to accompany population growth
(Adapted from World Bank 1985)200 o0 200
ALGERIA -200
20
MAURITANIAOE
SahLan NLMALI 3XJ50n n6038 0
uda n - ne13A v C e 0L 0
10 GUINEA-BISS1U 00 2 00 GUINEA i S h i and Sud -nia Zones
SIERRA IVORY 0 IERA LEONECOAST
0HNI -
CLIMATIC ZONES AEO1 o0O Zones Rainfall
-- 350 - 30-Sahelo-aian P Sahelo- aian NL50 - 350
Sudanian 600 -800 0Komts 200 400 600 Sudano-Guinean Above 800 K oM lers shy
200 4 00
deg deg20 0 100 o 10c0 deg 20
Figure 1 West African Sahelian and Sudanian Zones
3
Since the WASAT does nLt have the manland pressure of much of Asia and Asia has been successful in rapidly increasing agricultural production in its prime agricultural areas it is useful to look at the resource base in this region The present manland ratios in the WASAT average roughly15 persons per sq km (World Bank 1985) compared with up to 600 persons per sq km in Asia (McNamara 1985) The poorer agricultural resource base of the WASAT however cannot support the high man-land ratio of Asia (Matlon 1985) For example in the older settlement villages of the Central Plateau of Burkina Faso manland ratios are as high as 60 persons per sqkm (World Bank 1985) These high manland ratios relative to the resource base have been causing the breakdown of the traditional bush-fallow farming systems Traditionally the crop area was cultivated for 3 to 5 years and then left idle for a decade or more to restore soil fertility In many of the older settlement villages increased population has meant limited access to new land a shortening of the fallow rotation period and the culshytivation of more marginal land (Norman et al 1982 Dugue 1985) For example in the village (Figure 2)of Nedogo Burkina Faso many fields have been cultivated as long as the farmers can remember (FSUSAFGRAD 1983) Moreover almost all the crop residues are utilized for feed or building materials or else burned further exhausting the fertility of the soil Declinin7 soil fertility in the older settled regions has bei disshyrupting the cereal production systems pushing the cereals into more marshyginal areas and encouraging a substitution of millet for sorghum (Ames 1986)
During the high rainfall period of the fifties and early sixties intensive crop production was further extended into the Sahelo-Sudanian zone (World Bank 1985) With the droughts and increased desertification of the late sixties and seventies many have become concerned with the posshysible interaction of human settlement and further desertification (Nicholson 1982 World Bank 1985) While this debate has not been resolved there is no doubt that the resource base in much of the Sahelo-Sudanian zone has further deteriorated The cereals deficit problem has become increasingly serious
All three phenomena--the disappearing fallow system the failure to incorporate crop residues and the extension of crop cultivation into more marginal agricultural regions--lead to further soil detcrioration in the absence of technological intervention In overpopulated agriculturalregions such as the Central Plateau of Burkina Faso the bush fallow systemis being replaced by a permanent cultivation system characterized by verylow and stagnant cereal yields (Lang et al 1984 see Ruthenberg 1980 for other examples of this dynamics)
Not all the WASAT is overpopulated Rather many of the regions can be characterized as frontier zones For example the eastern region of Burkina Faso (ie Diapangou Figure 2) with man-land ratios of 15 persons
I
oBURKINA FASO I Principal Cities 3 350
FSU Survey Villages Dori
OuaigoyaBangasse
deg 00 1i0
Dissankuy FauF
Bdobo ogo NGourma 800bullDioulasso bulloBE -I -NIN
TOGOBanfora
GHANA CLIMATIC ZONES Zones Rainfall
IVORY COAST Sahelian NLC- 350IVRYCASlSahelo-Sudanian 350 - 600
Sudanian 600 - 800 Sudano-Guinean Above 800
(I) NLC NORTHERN LIMIT OF CULTIVATION (2) ISOHYETS INn
00
Figure 2 FSU research sites and climatic zones of Burkina Faso
5
per sq km has surplus land and follows the bush-fallow system of cultivashytion However even on the frontier as population pressure increases in the next five years a phenomenon similar to what is now taking place on the Central Plateau of Purkina Faso would be expected to occur It is becoming increasingly important to develop land substituting technologies for the overpopulated regions And although labor substituting technolshyogies are presently still very important on the frontier at the present pace of developnnt the frontier zones will confront similar problems to those in the overpopulated regions during the next decade
Given the present cereals crisis in the WASAT it is becoming critical to develop or ad~pt new agricultural technologies which will reverse the Malthusian trends In the mid-sixties before the start ofthe Green Revolution similar Malthusian statements were made about the agricultural potential of the Indian sub-continent However during the late sixties and seventies agricultural regions in Asia with irrigation or regular assured rainfall had the mosc rapid growth rates in technology diffusion ever empirically documented Although the resource endowment in the WASAT is not as great as that of the Punjab and similar Asian regions research reported here will atuempt to show that there is substantial potential for cereal technology development in the WASAT
The technology development process in the Purdue UniversitySAFGRAD Farming Systems Unit Project had two phases The first phase was the development of a methodology to identify the pressing constraints to cereal production increase and the testing out on farmers fields of technology alternatives available from the experiment station and from similar climatic regions in other countries The second stage was the continued evaluation of successful technologies over a sufficiently long time period and in sufficient detail to allow researchers a feeling of reasonable conshyfidence in their recommendations to both experiment station researchers and to the extension service and government officials involved in agricultural development The principle chapters of this report (III and V) are conshycerned with these two phases of the technology development process The basic methodological concepts potentially useful in other WASAT countries from the farming systems research in Burkina Faso are synthesized in Chapter III In the technology evaluation of Chapter V the results of other WASAT agricultural researchers are combined with those of the Purdue UniversitySAFGRAD Farming Systems program to give a more comprehensive evaluation of the present state of cereal technology development in the WASAT The conclusions synthesize the technology evaluation to draw out the implications for agricultural policy and for future extension and research
6
Footnotes
Rainfall averages have declined by 100 to 150 mm per year since the mid
1960s Updated isohyets using 1961-1985 data were not available In depth information on the countries and regions of the WASAT can be obtained from Kowal and Kassam 1978 McNamara 1985 Norman et al 1981 and World Bank 1985
At present there is some scope for migration to lower population denshysity areas with better soils and rainfall within the WASAT since health investments have been made to eradicate river blindness in some of the more fertile valleys (Sanders et al 1986) Several relocation proshygrams have already been undertakca in Burkina Faso (McMillan 1979) Relocation programs are costly and represent a short to intermediate solution for the WASAI Also people are reluctant to relocate and leave family friends and familar surroundings
CHAPTER II
THE PURDUE SAFGRAD FARMING SYSTEMS UNIT
The Purdue University Farming Systems Unit (FSU) funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) was part of the Semi-Arid Food Grain Research and Development Project (SAFGRAD) from December 1978 to June 1986 SAFGRAD is a regional research coordinating program implemented by the Coordination Office of the Scientific Technical and Research Commission of the Organization of African Unity (OAUSTRC) The SAFGRAD project works in cooperation with 28 sub-Saharan member countries with the coordination office located in Ouagadougou Burkina Faso The principal objective of the SAFGRAD project is to coordinate and strengthen programs in the semi-arid regions of sub-Saharan Africa that are involved in improving sorghum maize millet cowpea and groundnut yields
In the West African Semi-Arid Tropics (WASAT) SAFGRAD coordinates a research and pre-extension program The regional on-station component research is headquartered at the Central Experiment Station at Kamboinse in Burkina Faso and undertaken by IITA and ICRISAT Another component of SAFGRAD in the WASAT is the Accelerated Crops Production Officers (ACPO) program which conducts regional pre-extension and demonstration trials An integral part of the overall program is the farming systems unit which provides linkages between on-station research and the ACPOextension proshygrams The research and extension personnel of SAFGRAD (including the FSR unit) meet yearly to submit an annual report to a Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) The TAC reviews the research programs and submits the results and recommendations to the Consultative Committee (CC) which is a management and policy committee for SAFGRAD The results are passed on to host country research and extension institutions
Within the SAFGRAD framework farming systems research for Burkina Faso was provided by Purdue University for seven years up to June 1986 In the seventies farming systems methodology was still in its infancy Its mandate included the development of methodological guidelines that could be implemented in host country national and SAFGRAD sponsored farming systems programs The specific objectives of FSU were as follows
1 to identify the principle constraints to increased food producshytion
2 to identify technologies appropriate for farmers which could overshycome the production constraints
3 to develop and implement a multidisciplinary research method which could guide production technology and production research to directly address these production constraints
8
4 to identify the elements of that method which could be implemented in national farming systems research programs and
5 to train host country personnel to assume increasing responsibilshyity in their contribution to research
During the life of the FSU program agronomic and socio-economic research was conducted at the on-farm level in five villages (Figure 2) The pecific operational procedures and evolution of the FSU program are reported in Nagy et al 1986b The agronomic and soci-economic field campaign findings of the FSU program are presented in FSU Annual Reports and other FSU publications
In the final year of the contract the FSU program completed the transfer of its in-country taff arid program to tie national agricultural research institution of Burkina Faso (IBRAZ) FSU also worked with the IFAD supported SAFGRAD farming systems personnel aho backstop the national farming systems programs in Butkina Faso and Benin Through regional symshyposia and consultation the methodology and results were made available to other SAFOPAD countries as well Details of the program transfer and field staff training component of objective 5 are reported in the 1985 FSU Annual Report (Nagy and Ohm 1986)
CHAPTER III
FARMING SYSTEMS METHODOLOGY IN THE WEST AFRICAN SEMI-ARID TROPICS (WASAT)
Introduction
The basic concept of farming systems research is that the research system could function more efficiently if more information on the conshystraints which prevent farmers from improving their well-being was obtained at an earlier stage of the research development process than is common in the developing countries Farm-level constraints can be identified with both surveys and on-farm trials A further extension is to supplement the on-farm trials with whole-farm modeling This chapter will be concerned with all three approaches
In developed countries the two-way linkages of communication between farmers and agricultural scientists function better than in the WASAT due to higher educational levels of the farmers better agricultural informashytion systems and financial mechanisms in developed countries which reward the agricultural research establishments and individual scientists for their contributions to resolving farm-level production problems Farming systems esearch can provide an alternative communication linkage which does not require advancements in general education or major changes in the institutional orientation of national research systems
The clientele of Farming Systems Research will depend upon the instishytutional setting and the stage of development of the technology In the initial phases of the agricultural development process as in the WASAT the most important directional flow of information is to the researchers for several reasons First farming systems even in low input agriculshyture are very complex with many systems interactions Farmers have multiple objectives and constraints and these can vary in importance and evolve over time and even in response to the conditions of the production season (Norman 1982)
Agricultural scientists in developing countries often underinvest in understanding these complex systems and farmers objectives before beginshyning research Further they may not adequately respond to knowledge which is available When farmers do not adopt the technologies produced on the experiment station and recommended to them the initial reaction of agricultural scientists in developing countries is often that the problem of non-adoption is with the farmers the extension service or national economic policies rather than with the technologies themselves
Technology development requires a thorough understanding of the scienshytific concepts applied on the experiment station plus a multi-disciplinary approach to understanding the complexity of the farmers environment farmshying systems and decision-making process The most fundamental difference between the experiment station and farmers fields is the necessary shift
10
from component parts of new technologies as produced on the experiment station to systems with impor ant interactions such as are characteristic of farmers production systems
Farming Systems Research helps to overcome these differences by nashybling agricultural scientists to improve their understanding of the comshyplexity of the farmers systems and thereby become more efficient at idenshytifying and resolving the research problems involved in overcoming farmers constraints Two desired final products are a more efficient agricultural research system and an increase in mutual comprehension between farmers and researchers Another product is the facilitation of adoption of new sysshytems of agricultural technology so that these systems can be more rapidly incorporated into the testing and diffusion program of the extension servshyice
The principal stages in farming systems research can be identified by responding to the following questions
a) What do you do first to describe the farmers production systems How much description is enough
b) How do you plan and organize on-farm trials When do you do it What are the differences between experiment station and on-farm trials
c) How do you analyze and supplement the data coming out of the onshyfarm trials What are the relevant questions to be answered about new technology performance on farms
d) At some point in technology development outside factors (exogenous variables) such as economic policy or the further development of input production or distribution capacity such as a fertilizer marketing system improved credit or a seed industry may be constraining technology introduction How does FSR set up its own boundaries while still maximizing its effectiveness in providing relevant information to facilitate the production of new technologies
e) Who should do the farming systems research Presently International Agricultural Research Centers spend an estimated 10 to 15 million dollars annually on FSR (Anderson and Dillon 1985 p 1)
The following sections of the paper will attempt to address these speshycific questions on farming systems methodology Clearly there will be some biases from the experiences of the Farming Systems Unit in Burkina Faso and the otber FSR experiences of the authors These eperiences will be utilized as illustrations
11
Describing Farmers Environments Production Systems and Objectives The Baseline Study Stage
If the principal objective of tarming systems research is to improve the understanding of agricultural scientists about farm-level conditions then this data-collection or description process must begin with them They help to define the research problems and objectives of the fieldwork and to understand the particular target group of farmers Agricultural scientists need to be involved in farm-level research design in order to provide more information and to evaluate the accuracy of their hypotheses about farmer conditions and decision-making
The utilization of baseline studies for developing research priorities requires the identification and ranking of the principle conshystraints to increased output of the commodities studied This is not a simple process since there will be a strong bias from the individual disshyciplines of the researchers in the definition of the farm-level constraints Breeders will identify varietal characteristics for overcomshying specific yield constraints pathologists diseases economists will point out particular policies or markets which reduce the profitability of specific new technologies Hence a multi-disciplinary approach to the definition of constraints will be necessary from the beginning of the research design process Some investment by researchers in the tnderstandshying of other disciplines will also be necessary
Useful baseline research has included the economic quantification of production losses from various insects and diseases This information helped confirm the research strategies of resistance breeding for field beans at CIAT (Sanders 1984 Sanders and Lynam 1982) Similarly in Burkina Faso the initial anthropological descriptions of faring systems (M Saunders 1980) and the economic analysis of farmers objectives and seasonal labor constraints helped provide orientation for agricultural researchers in the farm trials (Lang et al 1984)
An important issue within this baseline stage is that it is extremely easy to overinvest in data collection and descriptive surveys Moreover much of the literature on farming systems puts an excessive emphasis on baseline data collection so that the research problem identification hyposhytheses analytical methodologies and even literature reviews are neglected The frequent consequence is the amassing of large quantities of data which are only partially analyzed Even with analysis much of the data collection traditionally undertaken at this stage of FSR has resulted in interesting descriptions of little relevance to researchers in reshydefining their research priorities
There are several methods for avoiding the pitfalls of random and largely irrelevant data collection The first is an extension of a method presently utilized by many agricultural scientists to identify for themshyselves the important constraints in farmers fields This involves their going into the field to see farm-level problems in their disciplinary
12
3 area A simple extension is to make these field trips multi-disciplinary and to involve some pre-trip discussion and mutual definition of field objectives If farm-level interviewing remains unstructured the datashyamassing problem can be avoided Multi-disciplinary collaboration is begun and can bd continued in the development of a report synthesizing the field observations Often these initial trips or sondeos have led to more formal multi-disciplinary questionnaire development and surveying in a second stage Clearly with the involvement of several disciplines the demand for data can increase exponentially
To more rapidly interest the agricultural scientists a different technique is suggested At any given time agricultural scientists genershyally have their own ideas of what will work on farmers fields These ideas can come directly from their own experiments from observations of farmers in other regions or from Vhe literature The suggestion here is to move rapidly into on-farm trials This will then give a defined frameshywork for supplementing on-farm trials with diagnostic surveys which have well-defined objectives ie to better evaluate specific socio-economic issues involved in introducing these new technologies tested on the farmshyers fields into the farmers production system
In these baseline surveys of the functioning of the farm and household systems at the beginning of an FSR project the anthropologists and sociologists have often made outstanding contributions to our understanding (M Saunders 1980 Reeves and Frankenberger 1982) When these surveys by the social scientists have been integrated with the research objectives of agricultural scientists their utility has been further increased It is recommended that a farming systems project begin with baseline surveys of farm and household conditions in each major target area preferably undershytaken by an anthropologist (also see Simmonds 1984 p 74) These baseshyline studies and a commencement of on-farm trials in the first production season are suggested as the appropriate way to begin farming systems reshysearch in the WASAT
The principal emphasis here is on moving rapidly to on-farm trials with supplementary analysis to provide understanding of the potential role of the new technologies in the whole farm system The methodology for this type of evaluation will be explained in detail in the fourth section on Evaluation As this type of on-farm testing and modeling analysis is being undertaken further diagnostic surveys are often useful to complement the principal investigation of the on-farm trials and farm modeling An exshyample in the Burkina Faso FSU program after three to five years of on-farm testing in different villages was a survey to evaluate adoption by parshyticipant and non-participant farmers of the new technologies tested
Designing and Implementing On-Farm Trials
There are two central issues in the implementation of on-farm trials First multi-disciplinary collaboratin is essential especially between agricultural scienmtists and economists Secondly the research objectives
13
of the experiment station and on-farm trials are different hence the organization design and arnalysis of the on-farm trials are different from those on the experiment station
True multi-disciplinary collaboration is not easy since each discishypline has its body of literature its journals certain statistical methods customarily dominated by its practitioners and even its philosophical attitudes about research and the process of agricultural development Moreover universities and many agricultural research institutions are organized by discipline Promotions in universities are linked to publicashytions in the high prestige journals of individual disciplines
To overcome these barriers between disciplines strong institutional support and continued personal relationships are both required There is a tendency in farming systems projects to give control of the on-farm trials to either the biological or the social scientists or to compartmentalize their efforts For example the agricultural scientists might manage the researcher-managed on-farm trials and the economists the farmer-managed trials Or the agricultural scientist might ask the economists help in interpreting data without collaborating with himher on field research planning and design
The most basic differences between agricultural scientists and econoshymists are in their treatment of data (Collinson 1981 p 442) Agriculshytural scientists are trained to be extremely careful in data generation to verify results over a number of years and to utilize variations of analyshysis of variance to analyze the significance of yield differences However policymakers generally need new technology recommendations in short time periods and farmers are more interested in the profitability and fit into their operati s of one or two new systems of production than in the idenshytification of the level of significance of the treatments and their interactions
Economists with simple modeling and synthetic estimates (judgements of agricultural scientsts) can help fill the gap between the public policymakers and the farmers demands for new technology information and the output from agricultural scientists Some knowledge of the agriculshytural sciences and some simple modeling are the necessary components of the economists contribution The primary requisite for successful interdisshyciplinary collaboration is the desire of the team to respond rapidly to real world problems of technology evaluation even if the data utilized are preliminary and some of them are synthetic Preliminary results can always be refined and improved with further experiments andor data collection and analysis
One important contribution of Farming Systems Research has been to demonstrate the strategic importance of on-farm testing of new technologies as a critical component of the agricultural research process (for an estishymate of the rate of return to this research see Martinez and Arauz 1984) The primary unit in new technology production is the experiment station
14
However once the component parts of new technologies have been tested on the experiment station they can be combined into packages and tested under a wide range of farming conditions (Figure 3) The synergistic or multishyplicative (rather than additive) impact of combining several factors of production is well kriown in the agricultural sciences The individual factors are identified and measured on the experiment station In the onshyfarm trials combinations of factors are evaluated to identify new systemsof production that are profitable and fit into farmers production systems
On the experiment station non-treatment inputs are held at fixed but generally high levels so that they do not affect the performance of the treatment input(s) Usually the potential for static (increased variance) in the response of the treatment input(s) is reduced by the high levels of utilization of other inputs Experiment station trials tend to study one or sometimes two factors in considerable detail Experiment stations are usually selected in the best agricultural regions and over time due to different cultural practices the agricultural conditions become substanshytially different from those on farmers fields (Sanders and Lynam 1982 Byerlce Collinson et al 1981)
Once the more basic experiments have been undertaken on the station and before recommendations are made farm-level testing is necessary If the technology performance depends upon soil climate insect or disease incidence the farm trials can help identify these factors and estimate the economic impact of overcoming the specific constraint at different levels of its incidence For example fertilizers will have a larger impact in low soil fertility regions and a disease resistant variety will be more impressive where the disease occurs A water retention technique such as tied ridges wouli be expected to work better in the heavier soils In sandier soils the ridges will be more rapidly destroyed by wind or water Moreover the on-farm trials provide a crude estimate of the relative importance of the specific constraints on the farmers fields during the production period evaluated
One method for analyzing these betwcen-farm differences in new techshynology puiformance in greater detail is to utilize a large number of farms for the farm-level trials Repetitions are often made by increasing the number of farms rather than includi ig repetitions on each farm site (DeDatta et al 1978 Sanders and Lynam 1982) One implication of this design is that variance within farms cannot he separated Another is that within any constrained planting zeason a larger number of farms can be included
Another way to handle the between-farm variation in technology perforshymance is to stratify the environments in which the technology is evaluated
15
Experiment Station On-Farm Trials
More Basic Research More Applied Research
Component Research Systems or Package Research
Variance from Non-Treatment Analyze Variance from Non-Factors Minimized Treatment Factors
Repetitions on Same Experiment Replications Across Farms
New Technologies Originate Hrre New Technologies Evaluated Here Primary Activity Secondary Activity
Emphasis on Feedback of Information to Researchers in the Experiment Station
Based Upon Technology Performance on Farms--Request Technology Modifications from the Experiment Station
To Extension Service for Further Testing and Dissemination
Figure 3 Stages of the research process
SOURCE Adapted from Sanders and Lynam 1982 p 99
16
Soil types rainfall regimes or even farmer characteristics can be utilshyized to define research domains However the performance of many new technologies under different farm-level conditions is often a stochastic event The incidence of diseases and insects is unknown at planting time so there is no way to define research domains for these problems If there is a large sample the data carn be stratified after the trials Since it is often difficult in practice to minimize the on-farm performance variashytions of new technologies by defining research (or recommendation) domains with homogeneous characteristics it is frequently necessary to employlarger sample sizes ie more on-farm trials The number of trials necessary will also depend upon the types of technologies evaluated
In the initial years of on-farm testing (early and mid-70s)economists and other social scientists frequently administered the trials Over time agricultural scientists have generally taken over the implemenshytation of these trials This transition has improved trial quality since agricultural scientists are trained for this activity However the failure to adequately specify the objectives of on-farm testing can lead to trials which are only replicas of experiment centtation trials
With the above detailed examination of the on-farm methodologies it is easy to forget that the origin of new technologies is the experimentstation This is the primary unit in the technology development processThe on-farm testing performs an important evaluation function in the reshysearch production process but it is secondary to the primary organ of agricultural research the experiment station Moreover the quality of the on-farm trials will depond upon the input from the agriculturalscientist In the design and the evaluation phases the interdisciplinary input especially fcom econiomists will be critical
The integration of the on-farm and station-based research and their links to diagnostic surveys of the farmers in the target regions and to the operational research utilizing the data resulting from the on-farm trials are [llustrated in Figure 4 As mentioned previously both the diagnostic surveys and the evaluation of on-farm trials have important roles and should function simultaneously The operational research for the evaluashytion of these on-farm triaLs will be considered in the next section
Evaluation of On-Farm Technology Performance
The on-farm trials combine several factors or component parts preshyviously evaluated on he experiment station into different systems or packages Isolating each factor aid its interactions in these trials freshyquently becomes unmanageable Beets (1982) cites an IRRI cropping systemexperiment with 750 possible treatment combinations However 7 the princishypal concern of the on-farm trials is to identify combinationswhich are profitable of factorsand fit into the farmers systems of produccion
17
Target group farmers of a recommendation
domain in a Vagion
Survey diagnosis of farmer priorities resource and environment problems and development opportunities
Identification ofunsolved technical problems and possible new practices and materials relevant to farmers development opportunities
On-farm adaptive research
Operational research for identification and evaluation of materials and techniques
offering potential for problemsolution and the exploitation
of opportunities
Station-based technical
On-farm testing via experiments on apparentl relevant materials and techniques under farmers conditions
Use of existing body of knowledge of materials and techniques suitable for the climate and soils of the ion
Component research usingcommodity and disciplinary
research solvingpriority technical problems
and investigating possible new materials and practices
Figure 4 Schematic view of farming systems research method (after Collinson 1982)
18
The treatments of the on-farm trials representing different systems pass through three phases of evaluation (Figure 5) The first phase is identical to the experiment-station analysis some variation of analysis of variance (ANOVA) It determines whether under farmers conditions there are significant yield differences with the new technologies as comparedwith the treatment representing traditional farmers practices
However technology needs to move beyond yield differences to be acceptable to farmers With a minimal increase in data requirements from the local environment the yield data from the treatments are converted into gross and then net revenue utilizing product prices and input costs This simple budgeting answers the second question in the flowchart of Figure 5 Is the new technology more profitable than farmers traditional practices
Mention should be made here of two frequently cited problems with simple budgeting (a) price variation over time and within the production season and (b) costing of non-traded inputs such as land and family labor Product prices can vary substantially within a year especially with the customary post-harvest price collapse and between years in regions with substantial climatic fluctuations and limited governmental role in pricestabilization Moreover input costs will depend upon government subsidies and the real input costs to the farmer will also depend upon the availability of an input such as fertilizer at the right place and the right time Questions about the appropriate prices and costs to be utilshyized in the evaluation are valid concerns which need to be dealt with in the economic analysis of new technology
Price variability and the effects of government policy and market development mean that profitability is a complicated decision which can be influenced by the farmers marketing strategies and by macro factors outshyside the farmers control Nevertheless farmers need to be able to devise some strategy to make a profit from a new technology Sensitivity analysiswhich varies the prices and costs over the relevant range can be utilized to respond to this problem The simple budgeting analysis of on-farm trials is usually a mean or median estimate The variation in yield pershyformance and prices received between farms is a useful complement to this measure
Some of the relevant inputs that neeJ to be costed for budgetinganalysis may not have a market price In the WASAT family labor duringcertain periods for performing specific cultural operations such as the first weeding has a very high implicit value and may even be constrainingcertain types of output expansion Mathematical programming models take into account the implicit value of the inputs and put a cost on them (shadow price) whereas budgeting treatments make some arbitrary assumpshytions about the labor market Land rental depreciation of the capitalinput and management costs are also difficult to estimate and are
19
Trial New farm results trials
(1)
Are there Yes significant Increases No
Infarm yields with the new technologytech~(noloy
(2) farms be
Ysmore
Is thenwtechnology
profitable than
farmers practices~(multiple
Noaffecting
stratified bycharacteristics
the successful
performance of the newregres-
Yes
sion cluster analysis)
(3)
Yes new technology N Newfit into the No [experiments
farmers production system(programming marketing)
extension service Analysis and diagnosisL
for further testing feedback for andor technology redesign
extension
FLgure 5 Flow Chart for New Technology Evaluation in Farin Trials
Source Sanders and Lynam 1982 p 100
In any of the three stages of evaluation a new technology treatment may not pass the criteria based upon mean values Then astratification of farms is attempted upon an a priori basis For example the performance of a fertilizer technology would beInfluenced by the soil types Ifthere were two types of soils and there was a return to fertilization on one and not the other thenstratification into these two groups would be undertaken For the subgroup of farms where the fertilizer technology waseffective the three stages of evaluation would commence again The subgroup where fertilization was not effective would raiseresearch questions for analysis and diagnosis as Indicated in the above flowchart
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often omitted in the simple or partial budgeting In spite of the difshyficulties of costing some inputs and the price variation profitability comparisons with sensitivity analysis give substantially more information than yield comparisons
Nevertheless even profitability is not a sufficient criteria for farmer acceptance A new system may be profitable but may require more labor at a peak period than the farmer can release from his other operashytions or the new activity may have much higher capital requirements than the farmer can obtain The third question (Figure 5) is whether the techshynology fits into the farmers production system Whereas simple budgeting can indicate that one activity is more profitable than another mathematishycal programming takes into account all other present and potentialactivities and the available on-farm and off-farm resources Utilizing this technique and the above information an estimate of the extent of potential adoption of a new technology on a representative farm can be made Moreover the farm-level constraints to the further adnption of more profitable nctivities can be identified Clearly the value of this modelshying will depend upon the researchers understanding of the farming systpmand his ability to simplify the model to the essential elements
These mathematical programming whole-farm modeling techniques have been operationalized at the farm level for approximately twenty years so their practical value in assisting public and farmer decision-making in developed countries has been repeatedly demonstrated (Doster et al 1981 McCarl 1982) One difficulty in the implementation of this technique in developing countries has been the computer requirement however the rapid diffusion of micro computers to the developing countries is resolving this problem even in the WASAT Nevertheless there is a necessary time investshyment involved in training the technicians economists and agricultural scientists to implement the se models and to interpret the results
Mathematical programming forces researchers to focus their data colshylection on the systems problems of production in a whole-farm context (forreviews and applications see Anderson et al 1985 Ghodake and Hardakef 1981 Roth et al 1986) Simple technical coefficients representing the relationships between inputs and outputs and the resources available to the farmer are the relevant data sets for evaluation of profitability and the fit of the new technologies into the farmers systems of productionAdjustments in the modeling can be made for more complicated farmer beshyhaviors than profit maximization Risk avoidance can be explicitlyincluded in the analysis with programming Other constraints imposed byeconomic and technical factors can frequently be included
Another step in technology evaluation could be the analysis of the intra- and inter-household effects (see McKee 1984 Nagy Ohm and Sawadogo 1986) There has been much concern recently with the role of women in farm production and consumption analysis more specific considerashytion of their roles in land use investment and consumption decisions are warranted Moreover specific technologies could have equity effects on
21
different types o6 farms and policymakers are often concerned with these potential outcomes
Many other considerations could also be raised such as environmental concerns or the cultural trauma often associated with economic or institushytional change However the emphasis of this paper is responding to the three questions in the flow diagram of Figure 5 Positive answers to these questions have been associated with farmer adoption of new technologies in both Colombia (Sanders and Lynam 1982 p 104) and Burkina Faso (Sanders et al 1985 pp 24-28) thus providing support for the evaluation criteria presented here These evaluation criteria as reflected in the three questions of Figure 5 appear to be logical simple and powerful for undertaking farm-level evaluation of new technologies
Micro vs Macro Approaches to Farming Systems Research
The farming system fits into and is affected by many larger systems Agricultural policy the availability of inputs and the functioning of the product markets all affect farm-level decisions about new technologies and farm-level planning for the development of new technologies
The most conservative approach in on-farm technology development is to assume that all these systems are not evolving and to attempt to develop new farming systems for the present levels of development in the other systems In the WASAT this orientation would precipitate a search for minimum input cost systems such as
a) new varieties used without chemical inputs such as inorganic fertilizer
b) higher densities c) different planting dates d) different rotations e) more systematic use of multiple cropping f) more utilization of on-farm inputs such as mulch and manure
These types of marginal changes are attempts to obtain small yield increments utilizing either available resources on the farm or an input such as a new variety which requires a minimal cash expenditure Oneshyinput changes of available resources such as planting dates and rotations are easy for farmers to implement and observe and many farmers carry on small experiments of this type The observation that farmers are not utilizing these adjustments appears to be good evidence that there are technical reasons for them not to utilize them G~ferally the yield effects of the small adjustments ate either very small or under certain natural condit ns they precipitate other problems irn the cropping system For example in Colombia higher field bean densities significantly inshycreased disease incidence even with spraying (CIAT 1979 p 92)
In the last decade the French international agricultural research institute (IRAT) has been joined by three other institutes (CIMMYT
22
ICRISAT and IITA) in the WASAT Their principal research activity has been the development of new food crop varieties especially cereals Yet few cereal varieties have been successful enough to displace local cultivars Matlon (1985) estimated that the new cereal varieties presently occupy less than 5 of the WASAT crop area In our view new varieties unaccompanied by other inputs belong in this group of marginal changes which have had little impact Why Much of the WASAT is characterized by inadequate and irregular rainfall and low fertility soils These are difficult agricultural conditions for one-inpit changes Therefore it appears that WASAT farmers will neei to itilize higher levels oflyurchased inputs and to take more risks in order t) increase their incomes
Presently the level of purchased input utilization in the WASAT especially chemical inputs is extremely low The eight Sahelian countries have the lowest chemical fertilizer consumption in the world at less than 3 kgha on crops Animal traction is still in the introductory stage at less than 15 of the farmers in the WASAr (Matlon 1985) Moreover only a smail portion of the cereals are marketed (less than 10 in FSU sample villages on the Central Plateau in Burkina Faso) Only 3 of the cropland in the eight Sahelian countries is irrigated (Matlon 1983) With these low levels of input use and infrastructure it does not appear to be approshypriate to develop new technologies for high levels of input use However it is important to make improvements in the marketing systems so that modshyerate input levels can be utilized and there will be increased marketing of the cereals
Marginal changes such as the minimal input utilization changes disshycussed previously are not expected to be sufficient to interest farmers or to lead to sustained yield increases Moderate input levels including chemical inputs are expected to be necessary to obtain significant yield increases which fit economically into the farmers production systems (see Chapter V for specific details on chemical fertilizer) Hence as new technologies are being developed and implemented over time input and proshyduct marketing institutions must also evolve The development of these markets may require governmental support and further research The effishyciency of the para-statal product marketing agencies and the role of prishyvate and public institutions in input markets are two primary issues of concern in the present agricultural development literature on Sub-Saharan Africa
What role should FSR projects have in influencing agricultural policy and other macro issues Historically there has been an urban bias in agricultural policies in most WASAT countries To keep food prices low for urban consumers WASAT governments have frequently intervened via parashystatal marketing organizations To compensate farmers for the low product prices these same governments often have provided input subsidies to farmshyers Presently the World Bank and US AID hTje been pressuring WASAT governments to eliminate these input subsidies At least in the short run this will reduce the profitability of agriculture discourage investshyment in agriculture and delay technology adoption Part of the evaluation
23
of new technologies by the FSR program should include some sensitivity analysis to estimate the farm-level effects of various agricultural polishycies including the elimination of input subsidies
In the recent summarv of FSR for the World Bank (Simmonds 1984) a distinction was drawn betweei modifications to present farming systems and entirely new systems of production Improved agronomy with moderate levels of inputs and ultimately introducing new varieties for these improved systems would be in the first category (and see Chapter V for concrete examples) However many of the poorer more marginal environments in the WASAT ultimately will need to gradually withdraw from crop production and move into grazing systems or forestry Crop farming in the WASAT migrated further north after the high rainfall period of the fifties As yield increases are attained in those regions of rainfed aiculture with more potential and in the river valleys and irrigated areas some present crop areas can be returned to more extensive agricultural systems Farming systems research will need to make some decisions about the regions with the most agricultural potential For those truly marginal regions more comprehensive systems changes may be necessary than are customarily evaluated in farming systems research
r-tional policy factors and national agricultural development planshyning cannot be ignored in FSR Many of these macro factors and evolving changes need to be explicitly incorporated into the analysis of which technologies and regions are appropriate for evaluation Nevertheless it is recommended that modeling concentrate on the farm level Without much better micro data and analysis than is presently available in most developshying countries extending farm models to sector analysis seems to be only a training device for economists rather than a useful exercise to enlighten agricultural development planners As the micro-modeling foundation is improved in the next five to ten years the agricultural sector models will be able to give a more useful input into agricultural policy formulation in the WASAT countries
Which agencies should undertake the on-farm testing
FSR presently takes five to ten percent of the budgets of several IARCs (Simmonds 1984 pp 67 68) and the IARCs have generally taken a leadership role in field application of on-farm testing The long-run frequently stated objective of the IARCs is to turn this activity over to the national agricultural research systems (NARC) The rationale is that the on-farm trials give very location-specific results The IARCs can develop methodologies and demonstrate the utilization of new research activities to the NARCs but ultimately larger numbers of on-farm trials in many regions will need to be undertaken in developing countries to evaluate the diverse technologies being produced in the IARCs and NARCs Not only does the scale of this testing make it infeasible for the IARCs to undertake all of it themselves but also much of the testing will be outside the commodity mandates of the individual IARCs
24
The institutional placement of on-farm testing depends upon the relative importance of the two clienteles for the products of the research at a given stage of technology development These two potential clienteles are the extension seryjce and the agricultural researchers On-farm trials which are successful give important information to the extension service and to those public officials involved with agricultural policy On-farm trials which are not successful give feedback on farm-level problems with the technologies to researchers at the experiment stations in both the national and international centers
If the primary emphasis of the on-farm trials needs to be on feedshyback then there are two problems with the present location of most farming systems research in the IARCs First several of the centers put the principal emphasis of their on-farm trials on providing information for the NARCs and the extension services (Simmonds 1985 pp 92-97) Presently there is less concern with feedback from the on-farm trials to IARC reshysearchers on the relevance and problems of the technologies they are developing Organizationally it appears to be very difficult for a divishysion of one institution to ierve for very long as an effective critic of its own activities
Secondly most of the IARCs Pre crop-breeding institutions including CIMMYT IRRI CIAT ICRISAT ICARDA and IITA Two of these centers CIMMYT and IRRI have been very successful in producing new varieties for those environments with adequate assured water availability and moderate to high levels of input utilization However in most of the harsher environments including the WASAT where these conditions are not met improvements in agronomy to attain moderate purchased input levels may need to precede the introduction of new varieties On-farm testing undertaken or financed by the IARCs tends to concentrate on the varietal effect since that is their mandate In these harsher environments institutions other than the IARCs (or even the NARCs which receive IARC assistance of new germ plasm) may need to do the on-farm testing
This on-farm testing in harsher climatic regions such as the WASAT would concentrate first on identifying agronomic improvements ie the combination of measures to improve water retention and soil fertility At a later stage the IARCs and NARCs could develop new varieties for these improved (but not high input) production systems The main points here are that at least in the WASAT stage of agricultural development the princishypal focus of on-farm testing will need to be on feedback to the research station and the principal focus of research on agronomic improvements
On-farm testing can be considered either as the last stage of the agricultural research process befcre passing the innovation on to the Extension Service or the first stage of the Extension process before demonstration trials and active diffusion measures Clearly there needs to be interaction between the NARC and the Extension Service consisting of the regular exchange of information and even planning of the on-farm trials If there is sufficient exchange of information and collaboration
25
in on-farm trial design the institutional location of these trialswill be less important
In summary on-farm trials will need to be undertaken by most agencies involved in agricultural experimentation in the WASAT Communication barriErs are sufficiently large between scientists and farmers that this type of intermediate activity is expected to be necessary for several decades since the IARCs NARCs and other agencies apparently need this source of feedback on the performance of their technologies Since we have been stressing the importance of feedback all through this chapter we argue that the on-farm trials should be located in the research rather than the extension entity so that feedback results are more readily acceptable at the experiment station
As on-farm trials move into the NARCs and are financed by their own internal financial resources lower ccst methods for conducting on-farm trials must be sought These trials tend to be very intensive in their use of highly qualified scientific manpower for planning and evaluation Their execution requires good logistic support and training for a large number of field workers It would appear that in the WASAT external financing and external scientific manpower will be necessary for some time to continue high levels of on-farm testing
Conclusions
Defining farmers constraints to increasing agricultural production is a complicated task best illustrated by example In the conclusions to this report (Chapter VI) we return to this problem to illustrate the conshytribution of the Purdue farming systems project to constraint identification in the WASAT Meanwhile the survey process can be divided into an initial or baseline study which describes the farmers production and household systems and supplementary or diagnostic surveys which invesshytigate particular research areas as they arise For the baseline study the in-depth village-household production and consumption analyses freshyquently undertaken by anthropologists and sociologists seem especially relevant to an understanding of the farming systems in the areas specifishycally targeted for further research activity during the on-farm stage of FSR Supplementary diagnostic 3urveys can then be undertaken in response to specific objectives of th farm-level work especially the on-farm testing of new technclogies These will often be within the disciplinary area of agricultural economists In the modeling stage of the evaluation process there will frequently be a need for supplementary farm business or household information
One primary recommendation here is that the on-farm testing phase of the FSR begin in the first production season Agricultural scientists will generally have a series of recommendations of component parts for farm testing Putting these individual factors together into technology packages and testing them under farmers conditions will help to further develop their understanding of farmers objectives and systems The
26
agricultural scientists will generally have much more interest in field experiments than in the diagnostic surveys In this initial stage of onshyfarm testing the principal direction of information flow will be feedback to the researchers as the packages are expected to have either technical or economic prulblems impeding their acceptance by farmers
Multi-disciplinary collaboration especially between the agricultural scientists and economists is essential for the on-farm testing Agriculshytural scientists know well the mechanics of the testing process Econoshymists understand the farmers objectives Both need to collaborate to understand the interactions and complexities of farmers systems of proshyduction There should be collaboration in research design to avoid replishycating experiment station trials and to obtain the necessary data for economic analysis
On the farm the treatments are generally different systems of production rather than individual factors The analysis proceeds from a statistical analysis of the significance of yield differences to economic concerns with profitability and the fit into the farmers systems of proshyduction The comparison between treatments analyzes the potential benefits to the farmers from new technology adoption since the control is a proxy for the farmers system of production The simplest economic analysis is the evaluation of profitability using partial budgets However this type of analysis is not as simple as it appears because of price variation and the difficulty of attiibutinrg prices to some production factors Generally an attempt is made to overcome these budgeting problems with sensitivity analysis
The final step in the evaluation is to consider the potential fit of the activity irto the farmers systems of production with mathematical proshygramming This whole f=crm analysis simulates the farmers decision-making process by including information on all present and potential activities using the data on on-farm and off-farm resource availabilities New sysshytems of production that pass through all three stages of this evaluation are expected to be adopted by farmers There is some adoption evidence from both Colombia and Burkina Faso supporting the above assertion
In the harsh envirarunent of the WASAT given the very low utilization of purchased inputs at present marginal agronomic changes such as density timing or even varietal change are expected to have little or even negashytive impact Larger systems changes involving technologies which simultaneously augment water conservation and soil fertility are hypothesized as necessary in order to raise yields sufficiently so that these new systems not only yield more than farmers practices on their own fields but also are profitable and fit into farmers production systems
National economic and agricultural policies can have a large impact on technology evaluation and even the planning of FSR Policymakers need to be concerned with creating an environment in which farmers can make money from adopting new technologies In the short run in the WASAT the
27
elimination of input subsidies especially if ceilings are retained for product prices will make it more difficult for farmers to profit from new technology adoption By evaluating the impact of different agricultural and economic policies on the farm-level profitability and potential adopshytion of new technologies the FSR program may be able to help influence governmental policy formation
Another impact of national policy is on agricultural development planning Frequently FSR programs are designed for marginal agricultural areas Alternatives to developing technologies for these regions may be public health investments in river valleys and yield-improving strategies in the dryland regions with better agricultural resources If yields can be sufficiently improved for the higher resource regions some shifting into livestock or even forestry may be appropriate land-use decision for the more marginal agricultural areas For these types of land-use changes government would need to finance the human resettlement costs Change in agricultural activities of this magnitude are not generally included in FSR Hence Simmonds (1984 p 121) developed a new term for it New Farming Systems Develonment (NFSD)
In the WASAT a prerequisite to new variety development appears to be the simultaneous utilization of moderate input levels to improve water retention and soil fertility Once these agronomic improvements are in place new variety introduction is expected to have more potential for sucshycess than at the present time Some of the on-farm trials in the WASAT may need to be underjgken by agencies whose principal activity is not new variety development
The on-farm testing can be either the final step in the research proshycess of the NARC IARC or other research institution or the fi t step in the Extension Service before demonstration trials or other disL mination activities The institutional location should depend upon whether the prishymary product is feedback on technology improvement to experiment station researchers or feedforward of technologies to be disseminated by the Extension Service Since the process of feedback to researchers is conshysidered to be the most important objective of on-farm testing in the early stages of agricultural technology development in the WASAT our institushytional preference for the location of these trials is with the national agricultural research centers (NARCs) rather than the national extension service The scientists in the on-farm trials will know how to convince the scientists on the experiment station of the validity of their results Some of them may even fulfill algual role working on both the experiment station and the on-farm trials As more technology is validated in the on-farm trials and can move on to the Extension Service the returns to investments in the institutional ties between the NARCs and the Extension Service will be increased
28
FOOTNOTES
This type of infrmation flow is customarily referred to as feedback
Farming Systems and other research programs also attempt to provideinformation on new technologies to farmers and extension agents Anyagricultural research program ult imately needs to have an impact on the well-being of farmers in order to survive Since the economic imporshytance of this directional flow of information to farmers is obvious we consider it to be more importlant to stress here the importance of the feedback to researchers so that they are more effective in doing their job ie producing new technologies
2 Dillon (1976 pp 6-7) contrasts philosophic differences of scientific
investigation into two approaches Reduc t ionism implied reducingphenomena to their more basic (and hopefully independent) parts analyzshying these parts as independent entities to explain their behavior and then aggregating these explanations as an explanation of the phenomenon under study Reductionism abetted and fostered the proliferation of specialized deafness and tunnel vision in form of independentthe scienshytific disciplines
Since the fifties reductionism has been increasingly seen as an inadequate basis for science to either understand or to manipulate and control its environment An alternative approach is the systems or holistic approach This is a multi-disciplinary approach in which explanation then proceeds in terms of the role or function of the part in the Larger system(s)
Clearly heshe will be exposed to all the other types of constraints but disciplinary blinders often exist especially for those involved in their own research programs
4 A recent international agricultural research center meeting for the planniig of on-farm trials in Africa concluded that the initial descripshytion and diagnostic activity of the FSR should be rapidly implemented so that a crop season for experimentation is not lost (unpublished summaryof meeting notes ILRAD Oct 1984) Diagnosticsurvey activities and farm-level experimentation can continue simultaneously In fact the farm-level experimentation will require additional diagnosticsurvey activities to evaluate the Economic potential of the new technology
The diagnostic surveys of economists have not been nearly as useful for a comprehensive understanding of the farming and household systems as those of the anthropologists Howev-r the utility of the economist on multi-disciplinary teams to undertake and evaluate on-farm trials has been repeatedly demonstrated and is now widely if not universally acshycepted (Simmonds 1984 pp 24 71-75 125) The other social scienshytists have not yet demonstrated their capacity to work on these types of teams They appear to be in the position of defining their role a position similar to that of the economists about a decade earlier
29
6 Generally soil fertility is higher on the experiment station and the
incidence of anddiseases insects is greater than on the surrounding farms due to the repeated intensive cultivation of the same crops Howshyever on the experiment station the high levels of non-treatment inputs such as agricultural chemicals can reduce the levels of insects disshyeases and weeds to levels even lower than on the farmers fields For farmers these levels of chemical control are often not profitable
Occasionally the impact of one or two components will be estimated as with fertilization and tied ridges (a water-conservation technique) alone and in combination in the Burkina Faso FSU program
8 If the weeding is not done opportunely there can often be a yield
decline Moreover all farms in a given region will be performing these types of operations at approximately the same time Hence it will be very difficult for farmers to hire temporary labor away from their famshyily operations So the implicit value or productivity of the family labor becomes very high in these particular tasks at certain critical times
9 A more comprehensive agricultural policy analysis would include the macro effect of new technology introduction on prices as is done in agriculture sector models But because so many other structural changes are occurring at the same time this price effect is not considered to be very important at least in the initial stages of technology development
10 Those advocating these types of planting density date or other culshy
tural system change generally are expecting yield increases of only 10 to 20 This type of yield increase is very difficult for the farmer to see and could easily disappear as on-farm trials change from researcher to farmer management New agronomic system changes are expected to take time for farmers to master if a series of component part changes are implied andor timeliness of the relevant operations is also important Hence the yield differences of these minimal changes even if they truly exist will often disappear in the learning-by-doing effect
11 Once farmers are utilizing moderate purchased input levels it will be
very important to systematically evaluate the im-pact of these marginal changes especially new varieties and more intensive cropping systems
12 By removing all input subsidies and other price distortions or intervenshy
tions governments and international agencies can calculate the real resource cost of various alternative policies and ascertain their comshyparative advantage in international production This analysis assumes that the re are no differences between private and public benefits or between private and social costs Hence there are no externalities in the system
30
Removing these price and cost distortions will facilitate economic calculations and in the long run welfare gains are expected In the short run the elimination of input subsidies is expected to sharply slow down the agricultural developmenc process and to put upward presshysure on agricultural product prices and the demand for agricultural import substitutes Developed country exporters of agricultural proshyducts would be the principal beneficiaries of higher agricultural import levels in the developing countries
13 In the river valleys and irrigated regions human health constraints may be the principal factor limiting agricultural development River blindshyness has been a serious problem in many of the Burkina Faso river valshyleys An erradiation program has now at least temporarily eliminated this problem In the irrigation projects the widespread incidence of bilharzia substantially reduces labor productivity
14 By successful we mean passing the three evaluation criteria recommended
in Figure 5 Clearly agricultural scientists will also be interested in those technologies being passed on to the Extension Service for diffusion We are stressing here their interest in feedback in order to resolve those problems in their technologies which came to their attenshytion because of the results of the on-farm trials
15 We would expect that those agencies principally concerned with varietal
development would emphasize varietal testing in their on-farm trials The on-farm trials are important activities for institutions primarily concerned with breeding Nevertheless a third party such as a univershysity may be necessary in order to carry out the farm trials without preconceived notions which would emphasize certain varieties or other types of technology
16 The differences are so great between the experiment station and the
farm-level definitions of constraints and relevant research problems that one of the field agronomists from this project even proposed that all agricultural scientists working on the experiment stations in the WASAT should have some involvement with on-farm trials
CHAPTER IV
PRODUCTION CONSTRAINTS OF THE WASAT FARMING SYSTEMS
The WASAT is not as well endowed with a climate or soil resource base as most of the populated areas of the world This chapter elaborates on the major physical and resource endowment constraints of the WASAT and describes cropping patterns farmers goals and objectives and modern input use
Climate
The WASAT region is a transition zone betwien the northern desert and the humid tropics of the south There are three distinct seasons warm and dry from November to March hot and dry during March through May and hot and wet from May to October Harmattan conditions (hot dry dustshyladen winds) exist during the November to March period
Rainfall in the May to October agricultural season over the entire WASAT ranges from 200 mm in the north to 1300 mm in the south with potenshytial evapotranspiration ranging between 2200 mm in the north to 1600 mm in the south (Nicou and Charreau 1985) Since the mid-sixties annual rainshyfall has averaged 100 to 150 mm below the long-term average within each isohyet (Dancette 1977) Thus the isohyet levels delineating the climatic zones in Figure 1 would be at lower levels if more recent rainfall data were used
Rainfall is extremely variable over time and over space Nicholson (1982) states that in normal rainfall years 40 to 50 of individual weather stations experience below-normal rainfall Rainfall vaiiabiltty at individual stations ranges from 15 of the long-term average in the south to 50 in the north (Nicholson 1982) Also the number of below-normal years tend to exceed the number of wet years The long-term average rainshyfall is inflated by a few extremely wet years (Nicholson 1982) The area also has a long history of intermittent droughts and wet spells
Soil Fertility and Water Retention
Soils in the WASAT are predominantly sandy red alfisols low in organic matter and exchangeable cations with a soil texture high in sand (60-95) anO low in silt and clay content (Matlon 1985 Nicou and Charreau 1985) The soils tend to be deficient in phosphorous and nitroshygen Long fallow periods can restore soil fertility but phosphorous and nitrogen deficiency symptoms have been observed shortly after the land is put into cultivation (IFDC 1985) The phosphorous sorption capacity of WASAT soils vary widely but is generally low decreasing the agronomiceffectiveness of phosphate fertilizers (IFDC 1985) Nitrogen can be quickly exhausted in these fragile poorly buffered soils (IFDC 1985) The soils contain only weak aggregates and in many regions the soil surface
32
dries after a rain and forms a crust which restrict water infiltration and aeration (Kowal and Kassam 1978) These soil properties combined with high intensity rainfall lead to water retention and erosion problems In the dry season the soils harden making pre-plant cultivation difficult and almost impossible by traditional methods until there is a major rain (Kowal and Kassam 1978)
The quality of the land in terms of fertility and organic matter conshytent varies greatly in tarmers fields Land quality and soil water retenshytion are highly correlated with topography and distance from the compound area around the living quarters The quality and water retention ability of the soil deteriorates as one moves farther up the toposequence and away from the compound area thus requiring different cropping and management strategies by the farmer (Stoop et al 1982)
Although more productive vertisols and hydromorphic soils are found along river valleys the presence of Onchoceriasis (river blindness) in many of the river valleys has made them uninhabitable in the past
Labor Availability
Labor shortages exist in the critical planting and weeding periods (FSUSAFGRAD 1983) Planting of millet and sorghum begins with the first significant rains in May or June This is followed by rice groundnut and maize planting in combination with the sorghum and millet first weeding activities Depending on the level and distribution of rainfall fields may require resowing transplanting andor thinning Usually a second and at times a third weeding will follow Most of the plantingfirst weeding period occurs over a six-week time period with the household supshyplying the labor
When farmers were asked why they did not hire more labor for first weeding their reply was Because there is no one to hire then everyone is busy with their own weeding (FSUSAFCRAD 1983) Households do not genershyally hire labor from other households because cash and food reserves at this time of year are at their lowest and not sufficient to pay laborers a wage rate (or its equiyalent in food) equal to the opportunity cost of working their own land Also few laborers are in the labor market at this time because households have control of their family labor and utilize it for their own production needs (Kowal amp Kassam 1978)
Cropping Patterns
Cereal production is the dominant agricultural activity in the WASAT (Kowal and Kassam 1978) Regional cropping patterns in the WASAT differ-shythe most notable difference being the increasing dominance of millet over sorghum maize and root crops as soil fertility and rainfall decrease from south to north About 80 of the cropped area in the WASAT is intershycropped--cerealcereal and cereallegume are the most common (Fussell and Serafini 1985 Sawadogo et al 1985) Cowpeas are usually intercropped
33
with millet or sorghum at low densities of 1000 to 8000 plants per hectare The main cash crops in the south include cotton groundnuts and bambara nuts Small amounts of rice are grown in the bottom lands and irrigated areas
At the farm level land quality the water retention ability of the soil and labor availability are the dominant factors in farmers cropping decisions (Lang et al 1983) The staple crops of maize sorghum and millet receive the highest priority of land and labor resources Drought tolerance of the crops are matched with soil fertility and toposequence Maize which is less tolerant to drought and low soil fertility than either sorghum or millet is planted near the villagle compound on the more-fertile compound field This field ranging in size from 1 to 2 ha is used as a dump for night soil animal manure stubble and other organic material Sorghum is planted on the lower areas where there is slightly more water accumulation and where the soils are more fertile than the poorer soils further up the toposequence (Stoop et al 1982) The more abundant but poorer land is planted to millet which has the most tolerance to drought and low soil fertility Farmers say that in the worst rainfall years some millet can always be harvested
Millet and sorghum can be found growing in the next higher soil fershytility gradient than is dictated by their drought tolerance ability but maize and sorghum are rarely grown on a lower soil fertility gradient Farmers say that white sorghum is preferred because it stores twice as long as millet however more sorghum is not sown because of limited good qualshyity land and because sorghum is more vulnerable to parasites such as striga Maize and sorghum planting is thus constrained by the availability of high quality land whereas the millet area is constrained by the labor supply in the plantingfirst weeding period
In the old settlement areas cereal yields are declining in response to lower soil fertility caused by the decrease in the fallow period and lower average rainfall over the last decade (Lang et al 1984) As the soil fertility declines sorghum is being replaced by millet which yields better on the poorer soils Farmers in the village of Nedogo say that much more sorghum was planted in the village when they were young than is planted now (Ames 1986)
Farmer Goals and Objectives
Norman (1982) states that the most important differences among farming systems come from the constraints peculiar to the region and not from difshyferences in farmer aspirations (which include higher incomes effort reducshytion and risk avoidance) Farmers in older settlement areas have conshystraints and endowments which differ from those of farmers in frontier villages Farmers in the older settlement areas of Burkina where access to land is limited and soil fertility low indicated uniformly that their only goal was subsistence (FSUSAFGRAD 1983) This means harvesting enough sorghum and millet in November to feed their families until the beginning
34
of the August maize harvest that provides food during the hungry period-shythe period between ending cereal stocks and the new harvest (FSUSAFGRAD 1983) When asked to specify other goals and objectives the first priorshyity was the payment of a head tax and if resources remained meetingurgent needs which were listed as medical Other priorities were to reward the family with clothes for their work during the cropping season and to greet their in-laws or arrange marriages (FSUSAFGTAD 1983)
On the frontier where access to fallow land is notl limited half of the farmers gave subsistence oriented responses that were similar to the responses given in the older settlement areas However half of the farmshyers responded that We were once concerned only with survival but now we also think of accumulating wealth When asked What is wealth they replied cattle (FSUSAFGRAD 1983)
The survey results indicated that although farmers in the WASAT in general are subsistence oriented the goals and objectives of farmers difshyfer given different constraints This is evidenced by the total subsisshytence orientation of the sample of farmers in the old settlement villages versus the orientation of those farmers in the frontier village who indishycated wealth accumulation as one of their main goals Higher soil fertilshyity and access to land at the frontier has permitted farmers to look beyond subsistence goals This appears to demonstrate that if through technologshyical introduction some of the constraints to increasing yield in the WASAT can be alleviated the aspirations of farmers will allow technology adopshytion to occur (at some level of profit effort and risk)
Modern Input Use
Except for tuie higher rainfall regions of the Sudano-Guinean region and some river valleys credit and modern inputs such as fertilizer pestishycides herbicides and improved varieties are not widely used in the WASAT Even in these regions of higher rainfall purchased input utilization is concentrated on the export crops cotton and groundnuts FAO fertilizer statistics indicate that NPK use in eight Sahelian countries averaged less than 3 kgha as compared to 73 kgha in Asia (Matlon 1985) Less than 15 of farmers use animal traction in the WASAT (Matlon and Spencer 1985) Animal traction is used for shallow land preparation plowing and shallow weeding but utilization rates are low and farmers seldom are equipped to do more than one mechanized operation (Jaeger 1985)
Neither input nor product marketing infrastructure nor a research and extension service similar to that developed for cash crops in the WASAT pre-independence era (pre-1960) was ever developed for food crops In the Colonial period food requirements were met by the subsistence-oriented agricultural system There was little export demand for food crops such as sorghum and millet (World Bank 1985) Since the late 1960s however rapid population growth and lower food crop yields due to lower rainfall levels and declining soil fertility have substantially increased food crop
35
demand to the point where food security is not assured in most regions of the WASAT Expanding cereal imports have accompanied this trend
Even with the population pressure and increased food demand since independence an input and product marketing infrastructure for food crops has not developed Poor fertility 3oils erratic rainfall distribution and low soil water retention have led to highly variable between-year yield responses to many land-substituting inputs For example the response of fertilizer is highly dependent upon the availability of sufficient water at several critical periods Thus fertilizer utilization can be very risky Similarly iroved varieties have not dcne well under traditional manageshyment conditions (Matlon 1985)
Labor-saving animal traction technology is not widely used in the WASAT in spite of potentially high ratc of return Present internal rates of return of 10 in old settlement areas (Nedogo) and 20 to 30 at the frontier (Diapangou) have been estimated but higher rates of return could be achieved with higher utilization rates principally through expansion of the number of mechanized agricultural operations (Jaeger 1985) Most animal traction farms observed in Burkina Faso mechanized either the land preparation or the cultivation operations but not both Problems of obtaining high utilization rates stein from small size farms inapproprishyate andor incomplete set of implements poor animal health and nucrition and poor management (Jaeger and Sanders 1985) Higher utilization rates and the full benefit of mechanization are not obtained by first-time animal traction users because learning curves can be as long as five years (Jaeger and Sanders 1985) Few animal traction extension programs exist which train farmers and draft animals and thus facilitate animal traction usage
In summary low soil fertility and low soil water retention low variable and unpredictable rainfall in combination with a high evapotransshypiration rate labor shortages in the critical planting and weeding periods and the limited access to land in old settlement areas are the major physical and resource endowment constraints to increased cereal yields in most of the WASAT (Matlon 1985 Nagy et al 1985 Lang et al 1984) The physical environment makes new technology adoption in the WASAT risky The national research institutions extension and input and product marketing infrastructures to support new technology adoption and dissemination are at a low level Thus farming systems on the frontier continue to be bush-fallow systems that rely on available land and family labor inputs with little utilization of purchased inputs Farming systems in the older settled area have been shifting to more millet production and yields have declined and stabilized at low levels
Despite the current situation in the WASAT recent research findings suggest that a Malthusian perspective can be iverted Several on-farm evaluated technologies have been shown to be both agronomically and economshyically feasible in increasing cereal production and others have promise for the future A review of the proposed technologies and farm management practices for the WASAT is the subject of the next chapter
36
Footnotes
Whole farm modeling results indicate opportunity costs of labor in the
last two weeks of the plantingfirst weeding period to be 365 and 181 FGFAhr respectively for manual tillage farmers which is in contrast to the wage rate of 30 to 50 FCFAhr (Roth et al 1986)
CHAPTER V
TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT TO INCREASE CEREAL PRODUCTION IN THE WASAT
Introduction
This chapter reviews the technologies and farm management techniques that have been proposed for alleviating the production constraints in the WASAT This review uses agronomic and socio-economic data and information frGn the Purdue FSU piogram supplemented by other research from the area The FSU program conducted research in three climatic zones with village research sites in the southern portion of the Sahelo-Sudanian zone in the Sudanian zone and in the northern portion of the Sudano-Guinean climatic zone (Figure 2) Thus FSU findings and the review of most of the techshynolog0ies and recommendations reflect this orientation
As each technology is discussed it is evaluated as to the feasibility of its utilization by farmers within the short run (0 to 5 years) the intermediate run (5 to 15 years) and the long run The criteria used in the evaluation attempt to follow the strategy used by farmers in their adoption process (see Figure 5 in Chapter III and Table 1 in this chapter)
Socio-economic research suggests that farmers do not necessarily adopt technologies as a package but rather adopt single technologies or clusters of technologies en route to total package adoption (Byerlee and Hesse de Polanco 1986 Mann 1978) This is in spite of the fact that the largest impact on yields comes about when various methods (technologies) are used in combinition or as a package The farmers strategy seems to be to adopt the technologies of the package sequentially based on availability technical viability in the field economic profitability and risk conshysiderations and the resource endowment fit of the technology (ie labor and land constraints) within the farming system The technologies within the package that best exhibit the above attributes will be selected first by the farmer Other technologies will be added only after the farmer has had positive experience with the already adopted technologies and when the above attribute requirements are again met Thus while farmers can be presented with a package of technologies there seems to be an agronomically and economically logical sequence by which technological adoption will occur Information on the likely adoption pattern sequence of proposed technologies is important for focusing research extension and government programs
In this chapter available agronomic technical and socio-economic research findings are used to review and sequence the proposed technologies and farm management practices for the WASAT For example research findings from on-station and on-farm research trials are used to assess technical viablity in the field Economic budget analysis and benefit-cost
38
Table 1 Present technical and economic feasibility and time frame of proposed technologies and farm management practices for the WASAT
Technologies Present Ayronomic and Technical Feasibility Present and Farm Mgmt On-Station On-Farm Economic
Practices Research Research Feasibility Comments
Available technologies for the short run
Tied ridging (manual) +++ Very labor intensive Diguettesdikes 3 Require materials (ie rocks) Complex fertilizer ++ Risk of losing cash outlayAnimal traction 3 ++ Preconditions (see text) Mechanical ridge tier +++ ++ Requires animal traction
Potential technologies for the intermediate run Rock phosphate + - Solubility amp application problems Improved varieties ++ + - Requires upgrading of physical
environment
Potential technologies for the long run Manurecomposting +++ ++ Small and finite supply Mulch +++ ++ Small and finite supply Plowinggreen manuring ++ ++ - Poor draft animal health
Herbicides ++ ++ - Further research requiredBiol nitrogen fixation + - Further research requir Crop associations - intensification ++ + - Requires upgrading of physical - alley cropping ++ + - environment and improved
varieties Labor and management
intensive
++ High degree of feasibility--research supports a very good agronomic response or is technically very
feasible ++ Feasible--good agronomic response or technically feasible + Limited feasibility--agronomic results often inconsistent - Not feasible--little evidence to support a good agronomic response or technical feasibility
HaHighly profitable at present
= Profitable at present = Not always profitable at pres(ent
- NHot economically feasible at present
3 Not researched at the on-station level
4 Can be feasible for sole cropping but problems with mixture of broad and slender leaf plants in crop associations
39
ratios are used to determine economic profitability Research irial results and the incidence of cash outlay loss are used to assess risk Whole farm modeling and labor data analysis is used to indicate the fit of the technolshyogy within the farming systems Farmers views and comments are also incorporated
Once the technologies and farm management practices are reviewed and sequenced for either the short intermediate or long run the discussion in this chapter turns to identifying available technologies--first for the present cereal-based farming systems and second for a future more intenshysified farming system The technologies available for use in the present farming systems are then further sequenced on a recommendation domain basis
Proposed Technologies for the WASAT
The research that has been carried out in the WASAT aimed at overcomshying climatological and physical constraints and labor endowment shortages is discussed under the hicadings 1) soil fertilitywater retention techshynologies 2) labor-saving technologies 3) improved varietal research and 4) crop associations Table 1 presents a summary of the technical and ecoshynomic feasibility evaluation and a time frame for the availability of the proposed technologies and farm management practices
1) Soil FertilityWater Retention Technologies
Tied Ridges Tied ridging technology was introduced in the 1950s in West Africa (Dagg and Macartney 1968) On-station and on-farm research has shown that tied ridges significantly increase yields (Nicou and Charreau 1985 Dugue 1985 Rodriguez 1982 Ohm et al 1985a and 1985b) (see Photograph 5 page 41) FSU on farm researcher-managed (TR constructed both at and one month after planting) and farmer-managed trials (TR conshystructed 4-6 weeks after planting) have shown significant yield increases and economic returns to the additional labor required for TR on maize sorghum (Table 2 column 2) and millet (FSU 1983 Annual Report 1983 Lang et al 1984 and Ohm et al 1985a and 1985b) Manual tying of ridges is very labor intensive The manual tying of ridges constructed with animal traction requires at least 40 man hoursha (with very efficient laborers) and on average 75 man hoursha whereas constructing TR completely by hand requires at least 100 hoursha (Ohm et al 1985b) (see Photograph 6 page 41)
PJshy
-no pre-plant soil itillage no fertilization Soil scarification with animal traction~Woman planting millet by traditional manual method
-
Left fertilization right no fertilization foreground droughty area in field shy a typical view in the Central Manual construction of tiec oges in researcher-managed trial - mulch applied to somePlateau plots
D II
A
FSU researcher managed trials near Poedogo Water entrapment in depressions resulting from tied ridgesa No fertilization construction of tied ridges at plantingb No fertilization construction of tied ridges one month after plantingc No fertilization without tied ridges d Fertilization and tied ridges
Ad T7 Z
Farmer-managed plots - Left traditional method no fertilization and no tied ridging right fertilization Farmer-managed trials - Left foreground mulch applied no fertilization nor construciion of tied ridgesand tied ridging Right foreground fertilization and contruction of tied ridges one month after planting Background farmshyers traditionally managed field
43
Construction of tied ridges with mechanical ridge tier FSU researcher managed trial Background maize intershycropped with cowpeas fertilized with construction of tiedridges at planting Foreground maize intercropped with cowshypeas no fertilization nor construction of tied ridges
43 - a
Table 2 Economic analysis of farmer-managed trials of sorghum with fertilizer and tied ridges Nedogo and Diapangou 1983 and 1984
1 Treatments
C TR F TRF Nedogo 1984 Manual Traction
Grain Yield kgha 2 157 416 431 652
Yield Gain Above Control kgha - 259 274 495
Gain in Net Revenue FCFAha 3 - 23828 13275 33607
Returnhr of Additional Labor FCFA4 238 140 172- Farmers Whio Would Have Lost Cash - 0 27 9
1aedogo 1983 Manual Traction Grain Yield kgha 430 484 547 851 Yield Gain Above Control kgha - 54 117 421 Gain in Net Revenue FCFAha - 3510 -2285 17475 Returnhr of Additional Labor FCFA - 35 - 90 Farmers Who Would Have Lost Cash - 0 66 0
Diapangou 1984 Donkey Traction Grain Yield kgha 498 688 849 1133 Yield Gain Above Control kgha - 190 351 635 Gain in Net Revenue FCFAha - 17480 20359 46487 Returnhr of Additional Labor FCFA - 233 214 273 Farmers Who Would Have Lost Cash shy 0 21 0
Diapangou 1983 Donkey Traction Grain Yield kgha 481 522 837 871 Yield Gain Above Control kgha - 71 356 390 Gain in Net Revenue FCFAha - 6532 20819 23947Returnhr of Additional Labor FCFA - 87 219 141 Farmers Who Would Have Lost Cash - 0 16 12
Source Ohm et al 19851) and Lang et al 1984 Similar results were obtained at three other sites in Burkina
1 C = Control (no tied ridges or fertilizer) TR = tied ridges constructed at second weeding F = fertilizer 100 kgha 14-23-15 applied in band 10-15 cm from row at first weeding plus 50 gla urea applied in pockets 10-15 cm from seed pockets at second weeding
2 The standard error and CV (in parentheses) starting with Nedogo 1984 and conshy
tinUing through to Diapangon 1983 are 75 (43) 121 (29) 46 (18) and 43 (22) respectively Net Revenue = yield gaiii x grain price (65 and 92 FCFAkg in 1983 and 1984) minus fertilizer cost (62 and 78 CFAkg for 14-23-15 and 60 and 66 FCFAkg for urea in 1983 and 1984--fertili C prices are subsidized 40 to 50) Includes interest rate charge for six months at rate of 15 1 US dollar = 381 FCFA in 1983 and 436 FCFA in 1984 Net Revenue + additional labor of tied ridging and fertilizer application Manual and donkey traction require 100 and 75 hours of additional laborha for tied ridging respectively Fertilizer application requires 95 additional hoursha
44
Tied ridge construction has the advantage that no cash outlay is reshyquired if family labor is utilized However a survey of technology adoption by farmers in FSU villages indicated that the number of farmers constructing tied ridges and the hectarage of tied ridge construction outshyside the trial plots were small--an average of 032 hectaresfarmer with the largest being 10 hectare (Ohm et a] 1985b) When questioned farmers indicated that thev would like to construct more TR but they did not have sufficient family Iabo I ir ing from an outside labor pool is limited at the time tied ridges mu be coumstructed because the active labor force of all households is fully occupied with work in their own fields Linear programming representative farm models (Table 3 column 2) also indicate that labor availab i i ty const rainos prevent the manual tying of animal traction constructed ridges from beilng ut ilized on the entire farm
Another limitation is that tied ridging does not work well on sandy soils because the ties tend to break down in heavy rain Nevertheless aim estimated 40 of the presently cultivated land in Burkina and 15 in Mali appears to be suitable for tied ridging This represents 12 million hecshytares (Burns 1985) Tied ridges have been shown to be both agronomically and economicaly feasih Ic as a technology applicable at the present time to increase cereal product ion in the WASAT However the labor constraint requires a search for labor- saving technoloies
I)iguettesdikes There are various water conservationerosion methods in addition to tied ridges that are or could be used in the WASAT The construction of diguettes although not as effective in retaining water as tied ridges is a water conservation method that has been investigated Diguettes are barriers 10 to 15 cm high mainly made of rocks and placed on field contour lines 10 to 50 meters apart The barriers are permeable ard slow rainfall runoff to allow for increased infiltration They have imshyproved water retention and signiicantly increased yields in the norther[ (Yatenga) region of Burkina (Wright 1985) This technology has the advarshytage that it can be constructed in off peak labor periods with family labor and is not as labor intensive as tied ridging However rocks (the prinshycipal material) or other material in some regions are not available to conshystruct the diguettes Economic analysis indicates that the returns in the first year alone are greater than the labor bill (at the going wage rate) of constructing the diguettes In Burkina Faso local government agencies have constructed large dikes and barriers to control water flow at the village level Although diguettes and other forms of water retention and control require further research thme large dikes and diguettes are technologies that could be used at present
Complex Themical Fertilizers Under on-station and on-farm conditions significant yield increases for maize sorghum and millet have been obtained using complex mineral fertilizers (Pieri 1985 Ohm et al 1985b FSU Annual Reports) Yield response to fertilizer is however highly variable between sites and years (Spencer 1985) Nevertheless some researchers sugsest that continuous cropping using chemical fertilizers is potentially possible in the WASAT (see Pier 1985 p 77 for a literature review
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
45
Table 3 Whole farm modeling analysis of tied ridging with donkey tracshytion Central Plateau Burkina Faso
Tied-Ridging Technology Traditional Tied with Machine Management Tied by Two One
Variable (donkey) Hand Passes Pass -------------------- hectares---------------------
Total Area Cultivated 55 56 56 55 Maize
Traditional 20 - - -With Tied Ridges 20 20 20
Red Sorghum Traditional 60 - - -With Tied Ridges 60 60 60
White Sorghum Traditional 80 51 With Tied Ridges 29 80 80
Millet Traditional 318 315 315 184 With Tied Ridges - 33 164
Peanuts 76 85 53 43
Total Cereals Production ---------------------- kgs------------------------Per Househol 2103 2436 2651 2737 Per Resident 150 174 189 196
Net Farm Income 3 000s FCFA-------------------Per Household 2153 2462 2535 2622 Per Worker 308 352 362 375
1 Labor times of 75 man hoursha for tying of the ridges by hand 20 man
hoursha to machine tie with two passes and 2 aan hours to machine tie with one pass Yield estimates in kgsha for traditional practices and the technical intervention of tied ridging are as follows maize (1090 to 1730) red sorghum (672 to 940) white sorghum (472 to 660) and milshylet (320 to 415) 1985 fertilizer and grain prices were used
2 Based on 14 residentshousehold Annualized cost of 4400 FCFA for tied-ridging machine subtracted in colshyumns 3 and 4 Based on 7 active workershousehold
46
and references) Decreases in yield and fertilizer efficiency however have been observed after two to five years of continuous cropping where organic matter has not been incorporated into the soil (Pieri 1985)
In Burkina Faso on-farm researcher-managed trials indicate that the response of maize yields to tertilizer on the relatively high fertilitycompound soils was not economically profitable (1982 FSU Annual Report 1983) On-farm farmer-managed trials indicated that fertilizer can be profitable when using fertilizer alone on sorghum (Table 2 column 3) There is however considerable risk for the farmer of losing the cash outshylay when fertilizer is used alone as demonstrated by the percentage of farmers who would have lost cash in Table 2 column 3 Both yield and profitability substantially inicrease however when tied ridges and fertilshyizer are used in combination as indicated in Table 2 column 4 Also as shown in column 4 the risk of losing the cash outlay from the purchase of fertilize substantially decreases when fertilizer and TR are used in comshybination Fertilizer in combination with TR for millet on millet land has also been shown to be profitable with only a modera e risk of farmers losshying the fertilizer cash outlay (Ohm et al 1985a)
A survey of four FSU villages in Burkina indicated a range of fertilshyizer use )n cereals from zero farmers in the sample of the northern village of Bangasse to 33 of the farmers in the southern village sample from Poedogo which has better land and higher rainfall In the more northern region fertilizer use is riskier due to lower and more erratic rainfall Average hectarage fertilized in the villages that used fertil zer ranged from 034 ha at Nedogo to 3 ha at Poedogo (Ohm et al 1985b) Although the use rate per hectare was not established field staff indicated it was substantially lower than the 100 kga of 14-23-15 fertilizer applied to most of the FSU trials in the villages
The evidence to date on fertilizer use in the WASAT suggests that comshyplex fertilizers are a technolegy that can be used at present but yields are highly variable and the incidence of fertilizer cash outlay loss by farmers is high unless combined with a water retention technique such as TR The risk of losing cash decreases in the higher soil fertility and higher rainfall areas Empirical evidence also suggests that fertilizer use or water retention techniques such as TR when used alone can be economshyically feasible but that when used together the profitability substanshytially increases Moreover the number of farmers losing cash decreases subFstantially as compared with the fertilizer only strategy
Indigenous Rock Phosphate The benefits of using indig ous rock phosphate deposits in the WASAT are potentially appealling in terms of logistcs transportation cost advantages and foreign exchange savings Workable deposits occur in Senegal Mali Niger Togo Benin Nigeria and Burkina Faso On-station and on-farm trials have however found the rock phosphate to have solubility problems (IFDC 1985 Pieri 1985) The comshybination of the low P release in a water-soluble form that is readily available for use by plants aid the low I-sorption capacity of the WASAT soils have resulted in poor agronomic performance from rock phosphate applications There is little or no potential for direct application of WASAT rock phosphate with the possible exception of the Mali (Tilemsi) and Niger (Tahoual) deposits (IFDC 1985)
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Two methods are used to increase the agronomic effectiveness of rock phosphate One method is to highly granulate the rock and the other method is acidulation Even when highly granulated the agronomic effrectiveness is low and several years of consecutive applications are required before significant yield increases are observed (IFDC 1985 FSU Annual Reports) After several years of application benefit-cnst ratios were still lower than other sources of phosphorous (IFDC 1985)
Four years of FSU on-farm farmer-managed trials in Burkina Faso using highly granulated Burkina rock phosphate (100 kgha rock phosphate with 50 kgha urea applied each year on the same plots) also indicated low benefitshycost ratios Benefit-cost ratios of less than one with a 50 subsidized rock phosphate price were obtained (Unpublished FSU data) In the same experiment benefit-cost ratios of 13 were obtained from a rock phosphate tied ridging treatment but the benefit-cost ratio decreased to 069 when unsubsidized prices were used FSU cooperator farmers did not like using the rock phosphate due to its poor agronomic performance and application problems due to its highly granulated form
IFDC has developed two processes for the partial acidulation of rock phosphate Acidulation with sulfuric or phosphoric acid converts the calshycium phosphate into a more soluble form Research on the agronomic effecshytiveness of partially acidulated rock phosphate in the WASAT has given conshyflicting results (Batiano et al 1985) Inconsistent results were obtained by FSU with 50 acidulated Burkina rock phosphate in a one year on-farm researcher-managed trial with sorghum and millet (Ohm et al 1985a) The partially acidulated rock phosphate is also highly granulated giving rise to farmer application problems
Few economic studies of acidulated rock phosphate are available for the WASAT When compared with single superphosphate the relative economic performance of acidulated rock phosphate on millet in Niger is generally lower but is not consistent across sites or years (IFDC 1985)
To be agronomically and economically feasible the solubility problems of rock phosphate will have to be overcome The present effectiveness of acidulation requires further on-farm testing Once rock phosphate became agronomically and economically feasible fertilizer plants and distribution networks would require several years to develop A source of sulfuric or phosphoric acid at economically feasible prices is also required (Pieri 1985) Thus rock phosphate appears to be a technology most appropriate in the intermediate run after the technical problems of solubility and applishycation are resolved economically at the farm level
Animal Manure and Compost Manure and compost are already being used effectively on fields near the compound although application and composting techniques could be more efficient (Pieri 1985 Table 11) The principal constraint to the increased use of manuring and composting is their finite supply Few organic waste materials are left once the household and animal feed requirements are met Manure availability will increase only when animals are penned to make collection possible However cattle are grazed on fallow land away from the living quarters and the labor involved in conshyfined rearing of animals is too great Cattle are also entrusted to herdshyers because of feed shortages close to the village As fallow land
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declines in the old settlement areas it will be increasingly difficult to support cattle near the village and in the area in general
While animal manure and composting are agronomically and economically feasible for use around the compound area at present they do not representfarm management practices that will substantially increase cereal producshytion in the WASAT in the short and intermediate run because of their finite supply Their potential will only be realized in the long run when the farming system evolves from the dominant cereal-based system to a more intensive cereal-foragecash crop system that is able to support more liveshystock near the village
Mulch Crop residue mulch can reduce rainfall runoff and increase water infiltration but sorghum amid millet stalks in raw or compost form mayadd little to soil fertility (Pieri 1985 p 91) As with manure the principal limiting factor of mulch is its finite supply--especially in the northern half of the WASAT The demand for its uses as animal feed fuel and construction materia] leaves most fields bare by planting time and even when it is not all used the prevalent custom is to burn it Moreover crop residues (3 to 5 Tha) are not sufficient by themselvEs to increase soil fertility and writer retention capacity appreciably In addition applications of mulch (10 Tha) can give rise to nitrogen deficiency which can only be overcome by composting or the addition of nitrogen (Pieri 1985)
Plowinggreen manuring Significant yield increases from on-station and n-farm research have been observed from deep ploughing and tillagepractices which change the structure of the soil allowing better root establishment and improved water infiltration and storage (Nicou and Charreau 1985 I)ugue 1985) Most tillage in the WASAT is done by shalshylow manual cultivation (85 of farmers) or by shallow animal traction cultivation Little pre-plant ploughing or tillage is done because of the need to plant soon after a rain (within 2 to 3 days) The soil is genershyally too hard and the animals too weak at this time of year for effective ploughing to take place before a major rain
Green manuring can also increase the fertility of the soil and add to its water retention capacity (Pieri 1985) However this practice also requires deep ploughing to incorporate the plants into the soil To be effective pre-plant and deep ploughing and green manure incorporation all require substantial draft power which can only be given by healthy well fed double ox teams This type of draft power will be available only in the long run when the farming systems can support high level-maintenance of the draft animals
2) Labor Saving Technologies
Animal Traction An estimated fifteen percent of farms in the WASAT use animal traction--mainly for transport shallow weeding or shallow land-preparation plowing (Matlon 1985) (see Photograph 2 page 40) Farmshyers in general use only one mechanized operation rather than using animal traction for all the agricultural activities of soil preparation plantingand weeding (Jaeger 1985) To date animal traction usage in the WASAT can be characterized as iand using (extensive) Some studies have reported
49
significant farm area expansion from animal traction usage Animal tracshytion can perform weeding 6 to 7 times faster than manual weeding (Jaeger and Sanders 1985) Increased yield effects have been reported in the literature (mainly from ploughing) but the yield effects are generally small (Binswanger 1978)
In spite of low animal traction adoption in the WASAT at present it is a technology that is feasible for use in the short run Animal traction can be made more economically attractive to farmers Present internal rates of return can be doubled and tripled by higher utilization rates (Jaeger 1985) Higher utilization rates can be achieved by increasing the number of mechanized operations In the past many animal traction proshygrams have failed in the WASAT because utilization rates were not suffishyciently high Returns to first time users of animal traction in the first years of operation are generally low because learning curves can be as long as five years and is a deterrent to first time users (Jaeger and Sanders 1985) First time users can obtain the full benefit of nechanizatior quicker through farmer and animal extension training and an improved market for trained draft animals
Mechanical Ridge Tier To respond to the labor constraint in conshystructing tied ridges the IITASAFGRAD Agronomy Program designed a protoshytype mechanical ridge tier (MRT) (Figure 6) for animal traction (Wright and Rodriguez 1985) (see Photographs 7 and 9 pages 41 42) With FSU and IITA SAFGRAD collaboration ihe MRT was field tested as part of Burkinas 1985 national farming systems program (Nagy et al 1986a) Yield levels compare favorably between ridges constructed with animal traction and tied manually and those ridges made with the MRT When the two pass method is used (first ridging and then using the MRT) the MRT substantially reduces the labor requirements from an average 75 man hoursha for the manual tyingof animal traction ridges to 20 man hoursha The MRT operation requires only 2 to 3 additional hours above ridging alone when ridging and tying with the MRT are done simultaneously (one pass) Donkeys must be strong and healthy for the one pass method Oxen which are mainly available on the frontier clearly have an advantage and can easily do both operations simultaneously
Linear programming representative farm models indicate that while available labor constrains the tying of ridges manually to 11 ha (Table 3 column 2) the MRT can tie 32 ha when using the one-pass method (Table 3 column 4) and is highly profitable The profitability is further increased with the addition of fertilizer (Table 4) although hectarage under tied ridges decreases to 09 for manual tying and to 30 with the MRT because labor is required for fertilizer application Budget analysis also indishycates the profitability of the MRT urder vaiious prices and goodbad year weather scenarios (Nagy et al 1986a)
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10
9
3 Latch lever 8 30 cm ridger that allows soil to flow over the top
4 Rubber band (inner tube strip) 9 Handles of houe Manga (FAQ donkey weecer) 5 Latch adjuster (for correct angle and to 10 Bicycle cable to brake lever
compensate for wear in bearings shovels and latch)
Figure 6 The ITASAFGRAD mechanical ridge tier (donkey version)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
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Table 4 Whole farm modeling analysis of a tied ridging-fertilization technology combination with donkey traction Central Plateau Burkina Faso
Tied-Ridging Technology Traditional Tied with Machine Management Tied by Two One
Variable (donkey) Hand Passes Pass ------------------- hectares---------------------
Total Area Cultivated 55 56 57 56 Maize
Traditional 20 With Tied Ridges 20 15 15
Red Sorghum Traditional 60 With Tied Ridges 60 68 60
White Sorghum Traditional 80 70 With Tied Ridges 10 80 95
Millet Traditional 318 315 318 188 With Tied Ridges 05 127
Peanuts 76 86 79 71
Total Cereals Production -------------------- kgs Per Househol 2103 2604 2970 3354 Per Resident 10 186 212 240
Net Farm Income3 000s FCFA-------------------Per Household 2153 2532 2732 2964 Per Worker 308 362 390 423
ource Nagy et al 1985 Based un application of 100 kgha 14-23-15 fertilizer at planting and 50 kgha urea four weeks after planting (20 man hoursha labor requirement for each application) Labor times of 75 man hoursha for tying of the ridges by hand 20 man hoursha to machine tie with two passes and 2 man hoursha to machine tie in one pass Yield estimates in kgsha for trashyditional practices and the technological interventions of fertilization and tied ridges in combination are as follows maize - not fertilized (1090 to 1730) red sorghum (672 to 1236) white sorghum (472 to 913) and millet (320 to 660) 1985 fertilizer and grain prices were used Based on 14 residentshousehold
4 Annualized cost of 4400 FCFA for machine subtracted in columns 3 and 4 Based on 7 active workershousehold
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Information from farmer questionnaires and field staff indicates that the major problem with the MRT is its awkwardness However most farmers were able to operate the MRT fairly efficiently after 15 to 30 minute- in the field Several engineering features require redesigning but the overshyall consensus of the field trials is that the MRT or a machine similar to the MRT can be used at present not only as a labor-saving device but also as a yield-increasing technology
Herbicides Herbicides could be used to decrease the labor constraint in the peak-labor-demand plantingweeding period (Spencer 1985) At present acquiring herbicides in the WASAT is difficult and little research has been done to tailor herbicides to WASAT conditions Both broad leaf and slender leaf plants as well as various trees are grown in association in the same field and these are sensitive to different herbicides
Economic analysis in northern Nigeria (Ogungbile 1980) suggests that weeding either by animal traction or manually is more profitable than herbicides at present Herbicides will find an increasing role in the WASAT only when cropping intensities are increased to the point where they require more intensive weeding (Norman 1982) and when the opportunity cost of labor substantially increases (Ruthenberg 1980)
3) Improved Varietal Pesearch
Few improved varieties of food crops are used by farmers in the WASAT Significant yield increases for varietal improvement from on-station reshysearch have been observed but a large yield gap between on-station and onshyfarm yields exists especially for the staple crops of sorghum and millet Experimental results suggest that the cereal y6 eld gap is less for local than for improved cultivars (Matlon 1985) Yields from FSU on-farm trials in Burkina for improved maize red and white sorghum and cowpeas rarely exceeded the yields of local varieties of the traditional management treatments (FSU Annual Reports)
Analysis by ICRISAT of sorghum and millet cultivars indicate that the on-station selection procedures under a high management environment (high fertility tillage and water management) have resulted in elite cultivars being more management responsive than local varieties but at the same time inferior at lower management levels (Matlon 1985) This suggests that breeding objectives should include screening and selection procedures that can provide cultivars which also exploit moderate management levels and that there is a need to hasten the process of variety evaluation onto onshyfarm trials (Matlon 1985) With the current selection procedures the full impact from varietal development will only be felt in the WASAT when farmers utilize a higher degree of improved management practices--practices such as an MRT-fertilizer combination--which would not take place until the intermediate run Also even if change ocur in the present breeding objectives leading to the development of new varieties able to exploit moderate management levels these vayleties will only be available in the intermediate run (five to ten years)
4) Crop Associations
Experiment station studies of different crop associations have received increased attention in the WASAT over the past 15 years (Fussell
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and Serafini 1985) Significant aggregate biological yields from intensishyfying cereal-cowpea associations have been obtained in research station trials (Fussell and Serafini 1985 Muleba1985) Increased legume densishyties however are normally accompanied by serious insect infestation probshylems requiring pesticide spraying The role that biological nitrogen fixashytion has played in obtaining the increased aggregate yields in cerealshylegume associations in the WASAT is yet to be determined (Fussell and Serifini 1985) Studies have shown however that under WASAT water stress and mineral deficiency conditions some legumes may contribute to nitrogen losses (Pieri 1985)
On-farm researcher-iianaged trials indicate that the most limiting facshytors in the performance of cereal-cowpea association intensification are soil moisture and fertility (Ohm et al 1985a) Under favorable condishytions of moisture and fertility it is profitable to increase cowpeadensity but under less favorable conditions the present practice of the farmers seems to be more dependable and profitable (Ohm et al 1985a)Under improved management (tied ridges fertilizer and pesticides) cowpeadensities somewhat higher than those currently used by farmers appear to be economically viable (Ohm et al 1985a) There are however instances where increased cowpea density has decreased sorghum yields (Matlon 1983)
Socio-economic studies indicate that farmers are primarily concerned with maintaining cereal yields and that modifications in cowpea densities and cultural practices that decrease cereal yield will not be adopted bythe farmer (Sawadogo et al 1985 Diehl and Sipkens 1985 Matlon 1983)Labor data analysis indicates that intensified cereal-cowpea associations substantially increase planting and weeding requirements (Matlon 1983)Depending on the planting date intensification can change the distribution of labor demand and reduce the amount of labor required for final weedingbecause of the cowpeas competition with the weeds Although returns to labor can be greater under intensification farmers do cite lower cereal yields and increased labor demands as the prime reasons for not intensifyshying (Matlon 1983)
Limited research has been carried out on cropping associations involvshying trees in the WASAT Alley cropping--food crops grown in the alleyformed by rows of leguminous shrubs or trees--could form one basis for changing traditional shifting cultivation practices (Kang et al 1984)Alley cropping does possess many potential advantages such as providingmulch firewood biologically fixed nitrogen animal feed and erosion conshytrol However it is very management-intensive and has not been thoroughly researched in the WASAT
Some intensification of cereal and legume crops can take place in the intermediate run once the physical environment is improved but significant crop intensification alley cropping and biological nitrogen fixation would contribute their greatest potential in the long run after farmers first increase their cereal production
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Sequencing of Technologies and Farm Management Practices in the WASAT
With falling cereal yields and the decline of the bush-fallow system in high density population areas the first necessity is to develop new technology systems to increase cereal yields Based upon the information of the proposed technologies as to their present agronomic technical and economic feasibility (Table 1) the overall sequential pattern of technoshylogical adoption would be to use the technologies available in the short run to alleviate the soil fertilitvwater retention constraints ie fertilizer tied ridges diguettes and dikes This would require alleviatshying the labor constraint in the peak-labor-demand period of plantingweedshying through available labor-saving technologies ie animal traction and the MRT
Once the agronomic environment has been improved new variety developshyment will be facilitated The development of these varieties will take time and be available in the intermediate run as compared with the more immediate availability of the tied ridgingfertilization technology combishynation Crop association intensification and diversification and other long run technologies and farm management techniques would then be incorshyporated as they become technically feasible Thus the overall sequential pattern of technology adoption can be dichotomized into a) technologies for the present cereal based farming systems and b) technologies and farm manshyagement practices for the Euture (intensified) farming systems
Technologies for the Present Farming Systems
Production constraints household endowments and household decision making characteristics are heterogeneous in the WASAT leiding to differshyences in the technology requirements and adoption patterns of various households Thus the delineation of recommendation domains can aid the targeting of research extension and government policy and programs This section of the chapter first delineates a set of recommendation domains based on production constraints household characteristics and resource endowments The technologies available in the short run (Table 1) are then sequenced as to the probable adoption pattern within each recommendation domain
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Recommendation Domains Based on Production Constraints
The labor endowment shortage is homogeneous throughout the WASAT but access to land is not Old settlement high-population-density areas exhibit limited to zero fallow rotation due to the limited access to land In general land quality and yield in the older settlement areas is lower than on the frontier which has access to land ind utilizes the traditional bush-fallow system Both intensification and extensification options are available on the frontier whereas only the intensification options are available in the old settlement areas due to the limited access to land Thus technology adoption choices are different in the two areas and a delineation can be made on a population density basis as follows
A Old settlementhigh-population-density areas (ie Central Plateau Burkina Faso)
B Frontierlow-population-density areas
Recommendation domains can also be made on an agroclimatic basis Higher rainfall and relatively higher soil fertility in a general north to south direction within the WASAT vary technology requirements and expected adoption patterns
Recommendation Domains Based on Household Characteristics and Endowments
Farmers have been found to be mainly risk averse (Binswanger 1980 Dillon and Scandizzo 1978) However the risk aversion of farmers within a group may range between high risk aversion and low risk avoidance depending on their initial endowments ie wealth Theoretically the risk that a household will assume is positively correlated with household wealth-shywealth being largely embodied in livestock holdings (mainly cattle) Wealth can also be considered positively correlated with the ability of a household to invest in purchased inputs or absorb larger losses in a poor rainfall season Household characteristics are further delineated into the type cf traction (manual or animal) presently being used This leads to the following recommendation domains Ysed on the household characteristics of risk wealth and type of traction
I A high risk aver3e low wealth manual tillage household--may only adopt low riT technologies and has limited ability to buy purshychased inputs
II A low risk averse high wealth animal traction household--chance of technology adoption higher due to the greater ability to buy purchased inputs
III A low risk averse high wealth manual traction household--chance of technology adoption higher due to greater ability to buy purshychased inputs but has not yet made the transition to animal traction
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Six recommendation domains are presented in Table 5 based upon the household characteristics and population density (access to land) typoloshygies described earlier The recommendation domains are for the 500 to 900 mm annual rainfall regions The potential sequential adoption patterns of the available technologies in the short run for the present cereal based farming systems--complex fertilizers tied ridging animal traction and the MRT--are presented in Table 5 for each recommendation domain The sequencing patterns of the technologies for each recommendation domain are based on the previous discussion of farmers adoption strategies where technologies are adopted singly or in clusters in a logical agronomic and economR sequence This is discussed for each recommendation domain below
IA High Risk Averse Central Plateau Manual Households
With limited access to land limited ability to buy purchased inputs and high risk aversion the opportunities for the household in the first stage of technology adoption are to manually construct tied ridges and use other water retention techniques such as diguettes which use available famshyily labor Linear programming (LP) results indicate that up to 1 hectare could be put in tied ridges manually by the average household which would increase production and income (Table 3 column 1) Also survey results indicated that households used tied ridging at FSU village sites and did tied ridging between 13 and 1 hectare per household (Ohm et al 1985a) Tied ridging is agronomically feasible and economically profitable For this highly risk averse group tied ridging is especially attractive beshycause there is no ris 5of losing a cash outlay with only family labor being utilized for ridging
The next step in the sequence of technology adoption would involve a cash outlay Fertilizer is an option on the land in tied ridges espeshycially in the more southern regions of the WASAT where rainfall is higher Fertilizer use although profitable (Table 2 column 4 Nedogo) would be limited by the small hectarage under tied ridges and the tendency of this group of farmers to avoid risks
Animal traction in combination with the MRT would seem to be the next step in the sequence This combination is not only labor saving but yield increasing as well The addition of the MRT to the machinery complement increases the internal rate of return from 10 for animal traction fWeedshying) alone (Jaeger 1984) to between 30-40 on the Central Plateau LP analysis (Table 3 column 4) indicates that the combination of animal tracshytion and the MRT enables the construction of tied ridges on up to 65 of available cereal land on the average or representative farm and increases total cereals production and income above that of traditional practices and
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Table 5 Recommendation domains and likely sequential adoption patterns of technologies in the WASAT
1 2Household Central Plateau Frontier Characteristics A B
I High risk aversion 1 Manual tied ridges-diguettes 1 Animal traction 3
Low wealth endowment 2 Animal traction-MRT 2 MRT Manual traction 3 Fertilizer 3 Fertilizer
4 Improved varieties 4 Improved varieties
II Low risk aversion 1 Fertilizer 1 MRT High wealth endowment 2 MRT 2 Fertilizer Animal traction 3 Improved varieties 3 Improved varieties
III Low risk aversion 1 Fertilizer 1 Animal traction High wealth endowmont 2 Animal traction 2 MRT Manual traction 3 MRT 3 Fertilizer
4 Improved varieties 4 Improved varieties
1 High density population limited access to land and in general lower quality land than the Frontier
2 Low population density access to land and in generel higher quality land than the Central Plateau
T MRT - the mechanical ridge tier
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17
manual tied ridging With the increase in income households would then be in a better position to purchase fertilizers Internal rates of return for an animal traction-MRT-fertilizer combination range from 25-30 and increase production and income over the animal traction-MRT combination (contrast Table 3 column 4 with Table 4 column 4)
IB High Risk Averse Frontier Manual Households
Households included in this category could follow the manual tied ridgingdiguette regime of Type IA households on maize compound land but may find it as profitable and less labor constraining to maintain the bushshyfallow system for sorghum and millet and use animal traction The present internal rate of return using donkey and ox traction has been estimated to be 31 and 21 respcCtively for a frontier area but the rates of return can be doubled with increased utilization thus making the technology very profshyitable (Jaeger 1984) Next in the sequential adoption pattern would be the use of the MRT The use of the MRT by households may not be used conshycurrently with the introduction of animal traction but the incentive for its utilization would increase as population pressure increased and land became more scarce With internal rates of return of 35-40 for donkey traction and 25-30ior ox traction mechanical ridge tying at the frontier could be expected The third step in the sequence would be the addition of fertilizer
IlA Low Risk Averse Central Plateau Animal Traction Households
Animal traction households exhibiting a lower risk aversion and a greater ability to buy purchased inputs will likely find fertilizer as the best option particularly in the more southern areas of the WASAT with higher rainfall The option of using animal traction to extensify is not available because of the limited access to land and thus the next technolshyogy in the sequential adoption pattern would be to use animal traction to intensify using the MRT
IIB Low Risk Averse Frontier Manual Households
As in IB the extensification option of using animal traction will continue to dominate until increased population pressure limits access to land thus making the intensification option of using the MRT more attracshytive--especially in the northern areas of the WASAT where the rainfall is more limited and Aserratic soil fertility declines fertilizer will become more profitable
IIIA Low Risk Averse Central Plateau Manual Households
Households in this category are expected to choose fertilizer over manual tying of ridges because they have the ability to purchase it and are less averse to taking risk Manual tied ridging could also be an option at first but presented with the opportunity of using an animal traction-MRT combination households would probably choose the latter
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IIIB Low Risk Averse Frontier Manual Tillage Households
Although these households would not be averse to using the land-subshystituting inputs a higher payoff is likely to come from extensification using animal traction in the initial stages of technology introduction As population pressure on the higher quality land increases increased utilshyization of the MRT and fertilizer would be expected
In summary different sequential adoption patterns exist for the difshyferent recommendation domains Adoption is expected to be more rapid by those in the low risk aversehigh wealth categories Given the present levels of research exteksion and government program support some groups such as the high risk averselow wealth old settlement farmers may never adopt any of the technologies
Tied ridging chemical fertilizer and animal traction have all been potentially available to farmers in the WASAT over the last two decades Yet little adoption of these technologies for cereal production has taken place Our hypothesis for this lack of adoption is that while the indivishydual technologiuts may be technically and economically feasible the ecoshynomic impact of individual technologies for the level of risk involved has not been sufficiently high Both farm trials and whole-farm modeling indishycate a substantially higher impact from the simultaneous introduction of all three technologies including the MRT The combined introduction of these technologies alleviates the soil fertility soil water and labor constraints and provides tilarge economic incentive at low levels of risk
The requirement th t the available technologies be introduced simulshytaneously to satisfy farmers risk and profit levels before they will be adopted is in conflict with the empirical finding that farmers adopt innoshyvations sequentially An alternative is to wait until new technologies are developed that satisfy the high profit-low risk criteria so that they will be adopted individually in a sequential manner Another alternative is to use support programs in view of the pressing nature of the problems in the WASAT Support trograms would have to take into consideration the sequenshytial nature of adoption while trying to achieve total package adoption as quickly as possible Animal traction farmers may adopt an MRTfertilizer package simultaneously given high economic incentives and support programs but clearly for manual farmers (the majority) the combined introduction of animal traction the MRT and a fertilizer package all at once in one year is too great
The main thrust of the support program should be to select the first technology within each recommendation donain (Table 5) and provide economic incentives that make the level of risk of the technology acceptable to farmers For example the first technology in the sequence of recommendashytion domains IB and IIB (Table 5) is animal traction Support programs
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would be required to deal with the pre-conditions for animal traction adopshytion (as discussed in Chapters IV and V) and provide adequate economic incentives At a later period when farmers are acquainted with animal traction support programs would deal with the next technology in the sequence for each recommendation domain Following this procedure will reduce the adoption time between technologies within the package The supshyport programs should lead to the adoption of a soil fertility-water retention-labor saving technology package within each recommendation domain Without support programs technology adoption of the present techshynologies available to the WASAT will be very slow with some farmers--in particular the high risk averselow wealth farmers--not adopting any of the technologies
Technologies for Future Farming Systems
The long-run goal of technology introduction for future farming sysshytems is to change the upgraded dominant cereal-based farming system into a more intensified cereal-foragelivestock-cash crop farming systemInformation on the agronomic and economic feasibility of the technologies that may come into play in future farming systems is incomplete making it impossible to sequence the individual technologies as was done for technolshyogies available for present farming systems
Improvements in the present cereal-based farming systems will set the stage for a more intensive crop association and rotation regime Given the yield increase from the fertilizertied ridgesimproved variety combinashytion an estimation has been made that moderate cereal surpluses could be expected in the WASAT in the future with the adoption of these technologies (Savadogo 1986) This would make it possible to shift some production out of cereals and utilize available land labor and capital on more intensive cerealforagecash crop rotations--especially cereallegume rotations that could provide biological nitrogen fixation and reduce the costs of and dependency upon outside sources of nitrogen
Feed availability would increase livestock numbers and improve animal traction not only by better nutrition but also by shifting to more oxen power and away from the lower draft donkey power that dominates low qualityforage farming systems This would mean better crop residue incorporation and green manuring opportunities With increased livestock numbers in proximity to the household more manure would be available Although farmshyers would initially adopt these technologies sequentially the process of adoption would be an iterative one as the more intensive use of one techshynology allows a more intensive use of another ie increased forageallows more cattle to be kept near the compound resulting in more manure which in turn may allow more forage hectarage
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Footnotes
It would be more appropriate to measure risk in terms of a time series
variance (ie over many years) as opposed to a cross sectional varishyance method (ie over many farmers in one year) as used here Three years of data make it difficult to undertake a time series risk analyshysis For a textbook treatment of risk analysis see Anderson et al 1977
2 Tied ridges (TR) are small depressions made between crop rows either by
hand tillage or by a combination of animal traction and hand tillage When constructed by hand depressions 32 cm long x 24 cm wide x 16 cm deep spaced 1-12 meters apart are made between the rows When conshystructed with animal traction the fields are first ridged with a cultishyvator (houe manga) which is equipped with a middle sweep to create a furrow This is then followed by hand tillage to make a 16 cm high ridge perpendicular to the furrow every one to two meters The depresshysions catch and hold water after a rain and increase water infiltration and retention Due to the larger water holding capacity of animal tracshytion tied ridges water retention ability is greater than that of manually tied ridges
One exception should be noted Traditionally maize is grown on the relshyatively higher fertility compound land Three years of on-farm researcher-manageu trials experimenting with maize on non-compound land with TR in general did not show significant yield increases (FSU Annual Report 1983 Lang et al 1984 and Ohm et al 1985a) These expershyiments appear to indicate the need to first utilize organic material or fertilizer to convert the less fertile land into the equivalent of comshypound land before putting the tied ridges on it if maize is to be grown there
4 All the FSU economic analyses have been carried out using subsidized fertilizer prices (40 to 50) Clearly the economic profitability would be lower and the incidence of fertilizer cash outlay loss greater utilizing unsubsidized prices
Trials examining the possibility of growing maize on good sorghum land and sorghum on good millet land by upgrading the soil through a fertilshyizertied ridge combination were also conducted Three years of onshyfarm researcher-managed maize on sorghum land trials proved inconclushysive (FSU Annual Reports) and although a sorghum on millet land experishyment showed promise sorghum plant establishment was a problem (Ohm et al ]985a)
6 The observed farmer adoption rates in different regions correlate well
with experimental evidence which sugests that yields are less variable and more responsive to fertilizer and that there is less risk of losing fertilizer cash outlay as rainfall levels and land quality improves
62
When questioned farmers said that they saw the value of fertilizer but that credit and availability were obstacles to greater use All complex fertilizers are imported from outside the WASAT and usually distribution within each country is handled by a para-statal organization
8 An FSU on-farm farmer-managed experiment involving tied ridges and
mulch (5 Tha) on maize was conducted in two village sites in Burkina in 1984 (Ohm et al 1985a p 17) The mulch part of the experiment was abandoned since only 6 of the 50 farmers had access to sufficient mulch
The MRT is attached to an animal drawn cultivator with one large middle sweep The MRT is essentially a paddle wheel (45 cm in diameter) with four paddles one scraping the ground building up earth until it is tripped by the operator every 1-12 to 2 meters to create the tie in the furrow between the two ridges
10 Analysis of five management factors--plowing tied ridges fertilization
timing planting arrangement and weeding timing--indicated that the major determinants of the yield gap between the experiment station and farmers fields were plowing and tied ridges (Matlon 1985) Also the major problems observed in the on-farm trials with the elite cultivars are drought and heat stress related leading to poor seedling establishshyment and poor flowering and grain filling ability Spittlebug problems have occurred on the new sorghum variety of Framida (Ohm et al 1985b) and striga continues to be a problem with most new sorghum varieties
11 The development of hybrid varieties such as the hybrid sorghums bred for
the Sudan (Gebisa 1986) may play a role in obtaining moderate level management response The poor marketing infrastructures of the WASAT however vould prevent hybrids from being a technology that could be used in the short run Present breeding for disease and pest resistance in sorghim and millet is encouraging (Andrews 1986 Andrews et al 1985) and is expected to play an important role in increasing cereal yields in the intermediate run
12 Empirical evidence linking reduced risk aversion with higher levels of
wealth is not available in the WASAT It has been a standard part of decision theory that at higher levels of wealth risk aversion would decrease (Anderson et al 1977) This proposition seems to be consisshytent with field interviews with farmers about their objectives (see Chapter IV page of this report)
13 Not included among the categories is a high risk averse low wealth
animal traction household While this category undoubtedly exists in the WASAT the number of households in this category would alot be large
14 The recommendation domains presented in Table 5 are discussed at the
inter-household level which considers resource endowments and decisionshymaking in the context of a family unit vis-a-vis another family unit
63
The recommendation domains could also be discussed at the intrashyhousehold level which considers differences--in gender age and access to and control of resources within the household--which may lead to difshyferences in the sequencing and types of technologies adopted by the various sub-groups (see McKee 1983 Nagy et al 1985)
15 The opportunity cost of labor (wage rate from outside employment) ranges
from 30 to 50 FCFAhr (FSU unpublished survey data) At an opportunity cost of 35 FCFAhr farmers would not have lost money by undertaking the construction of tied ridges (Table 2)
16 Calculations made using the procedure by Jaeger (1984) and adding apshy
propriate costs and revenues based on FSU on-farm farmer-managed trials to estimate the yield increases from the use of the MRT (Ohm et al 1985b Nagy et al 1986)
17 The weekly available labor hour figures used in the model are based on
conservative estimates Increasing the labor availabilities by 10 to 20 for the tied ridging period andor allowing tied ridging to also take place in the following period results in tied ridges being conshystructed on all the cereal land
CHAPTER VI
POLICY IMPLICATIONS AND FUTURE AVENUES FOR RESEARCH AND EXTENSION
This report has proposed that the overall sequence of technology intervention for the WASAT is 1) technologies that improve the agronomicenvironment ie water retention and soil fertility improvement With appropriate policy and institutional support this technology combination can be immediately implemented 2) the use when they become available of improved varieties that can exploit moderate input levels If varieties are developed for the moderate input levels recommended in 1) above this techshynology is expected to be available for farmer adoption in the next five to ten years and 3) more intensive livestockcereal systems in the better agricultural areas and a shift back to extensive grazing and forestry in the more marginal agricultural regions There are many types of technolshyogies for those intensive livestockcerealcash crop systems that can now be productively studied on the experiment station and in on-farm trials so that these systems can be available to farmers after the next decade
The first priority of the agricultural policy research and extension community in the WASAT is to develop technologies to increase the yields of the cereal-based systems dominate the The presentfarming which area focus should be on alleviating the low soil fertilitylow soil water retenshytion constraints Complex fertilizers the water retention methods of tied ridges diguettes and dikes and the labor-saving technologies of animal traction and the mechanical ridge tier are a]rady available for extension in much of the region
Tied ridging chemical fertilizer and animal traction however have all been potentially available to farmers in the WASAT for more than two decades Yet there has been little adoption by WASAT food crop producers of any of these three innovations This is because there was little ecoshynomic incentive to adopt these technologies prior to the 1960s because food consumption needs were being met Moreover there was little export demand for sorghum and millct Hence there was little demand for new cereal technologies However with increased population recent droughtsand the deterioration of the soil quality in the higher population regions during the intervening years the demand for new cereal technology has subshystantially increased
Credit fertilizer and animal traction non-availability and lack of information have all been cited as reasons for the low level of farmer adoption of the above technologies in the WASAT From our perspective the principal reason for the failure to adopt these individual components is that the economic impact of each of the three components has not been sufshyficiently high by itself Fertilizer utilization is too risky in poorrainfall years without some simultaneous method to increase the availabilshy
water the critical times of plant development themselves do not resolve the low soil fertility problem Family labor
ity of at Tied ridges by
65
availability constrains the amount of tied ridging construction It apshypears from the on-farm trials and the whole-farm modeling results that all three technologies (including the MRT) would need to be introduced togetherbefore economic incentive and risk levels are adequate for technology adoption Introducing the technologies together would alleviate the soil fertiltty soil water and labor constraints and provide high economic incentives at levels of risk that would be attractive to farmers However as previously discussed farmers adopt technologies sequentially and not as a package
An option is to wait for the research community to develop new techshynologies that will individually provide a sufficient economic incentive at a level of risk that is attractive to farmers Another option is to develop support programs that will enable farmers to sequentially adopt the available technologies en route to total package adoption The review of the constraints to cereal production and the review of the available and future technologies for the WASAT (Chapters IV and V) point out that such individual technologies will not be available in the short run and will probably not be available in the intermediate run (10-15 years) The pressing problems of the WASAT require more immediate solutions which can only be brought about by support programs to facilitate the adoption of the available technologies If the package of available technologies is introshyduced without special government programs farmers are expected to adoptthe technologies in the sequence given for each recommendation domain as outlined in Chapter V (Table 5) Adoption by recommendation domain would vary with those in the low risk aversehigh wealth categories adopting the technologies first groups such asSome the high risk averselow wealth old settlement farmers may never adopt any of the technologies
Implementation of a support program to increase the present cereal production in the WASAT would include
a) credit programs for the cash outlays required by farmers for fershytilizer and animal traction
b) farm mnagement information especially on efficient utilization of animal traction and fertilizer from the extension service
c) development of the input and product markets
thrustA main of the support program would be to select the technologieswithin each recommendation dolvin that farmers would most likely adopt
described Ta|IlAfirst (as in 5) and provide the economic incentives and pre-conditions for farmers to adopt the technology Once farmers become acquainted with the technology the next technology would be supported in a similar manner and so on until the total technology package was adoptedAppropriate economic incentives and pre-conditions would ensure that techshynology adoption proceeded as quickly as possible so that all the farmers could adopt the total package in the shortest possible time
66
To facilitate new-technology introduction some of the potential typesof research and extension institutional support programs are mentioned below
Priorities for Extension and Local Governments
The highest priorities for extension and local government agencies involve focusing on the soil fertilitywater retention technologies of manshyual tied ridging diguettes and dikes complex fertilizers animal traction and the mechanical ridge tier These technologies should be put forward on demonstration fields (using local farmer participation where appropriate) individually and as packages for each of the recommendation domains
There is a role for local government agencies in the construction and maintenance of large dikes and barriers to regulate the speed of rainfall runoff at the village level Within each region individual households would either construct tied ridges andor diguettes--whichever is the most appropriate for the area Where diguettes are used assistance from local government agencies may be required for correct contour placement
A critical role will have to be undertaken by extension agencies to ensure that the appropriate preconditions exist for animal traction adopshytion The preconditions of shorter learning curves for both the farmer and draft animals and higher utilization rates can be facilitated by animal traction programs Extension agencies could be involved in training farmshyers (technical operation and animal maintenance) and in the training of draft animals until a draft animal market develops Shortening the learnshying curve will itseli increase utilization rates which can be further increased by an appropriate complement of implements including the mechanshyical ridge tier
Priorities for On-Farm Testing
The prototype IITA mechanical ridge tier requires further modificashytions at the engineering level to reduce its weight and awkwardness and increase its adaptability for hook-up with a wide range of cultivatorplow equipment (Nagy et al 1986a) Other possibilities include an automatic tripping device and even new design concepts which need to be rigorously field tested with farmer participation As modifications and new design concepts are developed they must be made available to the extension system and local manufacturers and provisions made for information feedback to the on-farm testing agencies The mechanical ridge tier is an implement that can be made locally and every attempt by the local extension agencies to provide prototype copies to local manufacturers should be undertaken Locally-made mechanical ridge tiers enable location-specific adaptations arising from a local manufacturerfarmer interchange
Priorities also include further on-farm testing of diguettes and of modifications of diguettes and barriers Further on-farm testing across the WASAT of raw and acidulated rock phosphate from all the major rock
67
phosphate deposits in the WASAT is required to evaluate the agronomic and economic feasibility of this technology
Priorities for Experimental Research Stations
On-station crop improvement programs require a change in the presentemphasis on screening and selection under high management conditions--manshyagement conditions much higher than can be provided by WASAT farmers in the intermediate run Thus crop improvement programs in the WASAT should conshycentrate on developing varieties that show stability over time and exhibit a response curve that exploits moderate management levels Selection must be focused on resistance to important pests and diseases as well as producshytion superiority under varying levels of soil productivity and available soil moisture--all of which contribute to production stability This change in crop development goals requires new screening and selection proshycedures and an increased interdisciplinary effort between on-station and on-farm research
The designing of labor-saving devices for fertilizer applicationplanting and other field operations should be further studied for both manual and animal traction farmers where applicable Research on water retention methods other than tied ridges or diguettes is required for those areas where these two technologies are not effective especially on the sandier soils characterizing much of the Sahelo-Sudanian zone
CHAPTER VII
SUMMARY
Whole-farm modeling was critical in identifying the potential effect of new technologies and in evaluating the seasonal labor bottleneck As onshyfarm trials produce more technologies that pass the yield and profit criteria whole farm modeling analysis will become increasingly important to identify the interactions of technology components and estimate their potenshytial impact at the farm level
A major contribution of the Purdue farming systems research project was not the identification of the individual constraints but rather a study of their interconnected nature It is necessary for farming systems research projects to concentrate on the well-known synergistic nature of agricultural inputs and not be satisfied with minimum cost input changes which also have minimal effects on yields or profits
The seasonal labor constraint has been stressed as the principal barshyrier to agricultural development in the WASAT and in other semi-arid areas in Africa However a more agronomic orientation to the analysis of the water requirement and 1oil fertility problems was necessary The combined effect of improved water retention increases in soil fertility and overshycoming the seasonal labor bottleneck with the mechanical tied ridger had a substantial impact on farm income Since the combined effects are much larger than the individual effects it is unfortuuiLte that farmers tend to adopt one input at a ime Governmental support of the combined practices appears to be necessary to facilitate their combined introduction
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77
APPENDIX 1
Administrative Report
In December 1978 Purdu University was awarded a two year contract with the US Agency for International Development to establish and operate a farming systems research unit in Burkina Faso as one of the components of the Semi-Arid Food Grain Research and Development Program (SAFGRAD)
This contract AFR-C-1472 had several mandates
1 Analyze small farm conditions and application of new technologies to those conditions
2 Formulate strategies regarding development and application of small farm relevant technology
3 Develop recommendations regarding physical research priorities and
4 Design help organize and analyze farmer field trials and studies as a means of performing the above
After several extensions the contract was amended in 1985 to reflect an additional set of objectives
1 Complete the transfer of the farming systems research methodology and techniques gained under this contract to national research organizashytions in the SAFGRAD countries
2 Finalize analysis of empirical research results
3 Finalize and publish guidelines for the methodological analytical or organizational and operational conduct of FSR in the SAFGRAD region
4 In conjunction with the SAFGRAD coordination office complete the groundwork for a West African regional FSR network
The termination of the project occurred on June 30 1986 Field activities in Burkina Faso were maintained through March 31 1986
The body of this report provides a description of the achievements of the project in terms of its mandate This section is the administrative report covering the implementation of this contrast
Contractor staff were provided logistic support by USAID in accordance with local AID procedures this included housing and utilities furniture household equipment and medical facilities to our long term staff In addition two vehicles were provided to our team for the duration of the project These vehicles were financed outside our contract but from SAFGRAD project funds
Initially the Purdue University team comprising an agricultural economist agronomist and rural sociologist were to be provided office
78
space at the Kamboinse Research station outside the city limits of Ouagadougou At the onset the FSU office was established in Ouagadougou then moved to Kamboinse however because the vehicles provided were not very reliable and transportation problems for local hire staff created major problems the office was relocated in Ouagadougou in agreement with SAFGRAD and USAID The FSU team continued to closely work with the ICRISAT and IITA teams who had responsibility for other resetrch components of the SAFGRAD program
At Purdue University a steering committee composed of the departments heads of Agronomy Agricultural Economics and SociologyAnthropology was established to guide activities of the FSU It frequently met to evaluate progress discuss issues relevant to the project and to formulate overall strategy for achieving project objectives
Technical coordination and backstopping for the project was maintained on the Purdue campus during the entire project period Dr Wilford H Morris provided this service from 1978 to June 1983 and Dr John H Sanders from July 1983 to termination On-campus administrative and logistic support was provided by the Office of International Programs in Agriculture under the directorship of T Kelley White and D Woods Thomas Other administrative staff responsible for project activities were Dr James L Collom associate director IPIA and Mrs Katy Ibrahim administrative assistant for the FSU project
In addition Dr Thomas was a participant of the SAFGRAD Technical Advisory Committee (TAG) and Consultative Committee (CC) of the SAFGRAD which met yearly in Burkina Faso These committees were a channel for review of all SAFGRAD activities in WestCentral Africa
During the seven and a half years the FSU project existed a total of nine long-term staff were on site in Burkina Faso for a total of 225 person months (PM)
Paul Christensen agronomist acting chief-of-party February 1979 to December 1981 - 33 PM
Richard Swanson rural sociologist October 1979 to July 1983 - 46 PM
Ram Singh economist and chief of party April 1979 to Macch 1981 - 24 PM
William Jaeger economistcomputer analyst December 1981 to June 1983 - 19 PM
Ronald Cantrell agronomistchief of party February 1982 to January 1984 - 23 PM
Mahlon Lang economist February 1982 to April 1984 - 26 PM
Herbert Ohm agronomistchief of party August 1983 to August 1985 -24 PM
Christopher Pardy economistcomputer analyst December 1983 to Tune 1983 - 16 PM
79
Joseph Nagy economistchief of party July 1984 to April 1985 14-
PM
In addition several short-term technical staff and consultants traveled to Burkina Faso for a total of 185 PM They are as follows
In 979 Kenneth Jones computer specialist at Purdue spent 50 PM to assist our in-country staff in organizing the data management That same year Ms Annie Buryer a sociologist spent 3 months in the field assisting our rural sociologist in setting up the village questionnaires In 1980 Herbert Butler rural sociologist spent 50 PM assisting in the analysis of the collected research dava In 1981 Stan Cohen computer specialist and agricultural economist spent 4 PM in the analysis of socio-economic data Len Malczynski computer specialist also spent 75 PM in the field in organizing the data Iandiing systems Anne-Marie Kaylen MS candidate in the Department of Agricultural Economics spent eight 1PM in the field to collect data for her thesis
Wilford H Morris technical coordinator for the FSU spent 200 PM in the field to provide support to our in-country team
In 1983 Jon Brandt agricultural economist spent 50 PM in Burkina Faso to assist Kirnseyinga Sawadogo in the collection of data for his PhD Thesis In 1984 Charles Rhykerd agronomist and soil specialist spent 75 PM oking with our staff in collecting soil samples and providing agronomLc support to our staff John Sanders as on-campus technical coordinator spent a total of 100 PM in the field working -ith the field economists
Purdue administrative staff also traveled to Burkina Faso during the existence of this project for a total of 45 person months
PM
T Kelley White acting director IPA 50 Paul Farris Head Agricultural Economics Dept 25 D Woods Thomas Director IPIA 150 Katy Ibrahim Administrative Assistant FSU 100 John Sanders Technical Coordinator 75 James L Collom Associate Director IPIA 50
Purdue University also conducted an internal evaluation of project activities in Burkina Faso in 1984 Members of the team who spent one week in-country were
Bernard Liska Dean School of Agricul-ire William Dobson Head Agricultural Economics Department Marvin Phillips Head Agronomy Department D Woods Thomas Director and Associate Dean International Programs in Agriculture
Sawadogo Sibiri participated in the On-Farm Experimentation Workshop University of Harare Zimbabwe (co-sponsored with CIMMYT) February 6-24
80
1984 the East Africa Agricultural Economics Program CIMMYT Nairobi Kenya October 27 to November 6 and in the evaluation of FSR programs with ACPOs in Senegal February 24 to March 1
Three Burkinabe staff enrolled at Purdue University for additional long-term training
Paul Compaore Agricultural Economics MS 1983-1985 Baya Toe Agricultural Economics MS 1983-1985 Kimseyinga Savadogo Agricultural Economics PhD 1979-1986
All have returned to Burkina Faso Dr Savadogo as a professor at the University of Ouagadougou Paul Compaore and Baya Toe are working in the Burkinabe Ministry of Agriculture
All of these educational activities contributed significantly to quality and dependable data collection and team spirit In addition these --aining activities were a significant factor in the transfer of host country technical and research staff to the national agricultural research program IBRAZ
Training for US graduate students was also made possible throughthis project Ms Anne-Marie Kaylen spent eight months in the field colshylecting data for her MS thesis in agricultural economics Also three graduate students funded under the PurdueINTSORMIL project spent eight months each in Burkina Faso working with our staff in support of the project while collecting data for their field research These were Michael Roth PhD Kimseyinga Savadogo PhD and Ann Bukowski MS Under FSU auspices William Jaeger developed his PhD dissertation on the economics of animal traction in Burkina Faso
The Farming Systems Unit project cooperated in the conduct of two regional workshops In September 1983 in cooperation with ICRISAT and IRAT a regional workshop on farmers participation in the development and evaluation of technology was held in Ouagadougou The proceedings of this workshop were published by che International Develpoment Research Centre In April 1985 the FSU in conjunction with the SAFGRAD Coordination Office conducted a workshop on technologies appropriate for farmers in semi-arid West Africa The proceedings of this workshop (in English and French) were distributed widely by the Office of International Programs in Agriculture
Thirty-six research-based technical papers were written and disshytributed under FSU auspices (See Appendix 2 for a listing of these publications)
The Farming Systems Unit project was not without administrative andor logistical problems Included were such things as unavoidable delays in transfer of funds to the field inadequacy of in-country transportation arrangements imperfection in project design establishing FSU relationshipwith national agricultural institutions and international development assistance organizations internal and international political events and the lack of ex-ante long-term contractual and funding commitments Excellent cooperation among the US national regional and international organizations involved in the program made it possible to resolve such issues with minimal impact on project productivity
81
Purdue University is deeply grateful to the OAUSTRC the SAFGRAD and its Consultative and Technical Advisory Committees USAIDOuagadougou AID Washington the government of Burkina Faso ICRISAT IITA and other enshytities for their assistance and cooperation in the conduct of this project Without such the objectives of this ambitious research could not have been attained
82
APPENDIX 2
Publications List
1 FSUSAFGRAD Staff Questionnaire Utilises pour le Etudes Sur les Systems de Production Agricoles Dans Des Villages Echantillons de Haute Volta Farming Systems Unit Project International Programs inAgriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana January 1980
2 Saunders M 0 Farming Systems Research Unit Working papers (1)Agriculture in Upper Volta The Institutional Framework (2) LocalEcology Population and Ethnic Groups in Upper Volta and (3) TheMossi Farming Systems in Upper Volta International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1980
3 Bruyer A Towards a Use of Survey Materials Report on Zone of Zorgho Farming Systems Unit Project International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana May 1980
4 Christensen P J Observations on the Major Classification of Field Trials Used in Farming Systems Research Farming Systems Unit Project International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana January 1981
5 Christensen P J Rock Phosphate Fertilizer in Upper Volta Part 1 Preliminary Report on Policy Implications of Cereal YieldCharacteristics Farming Systems Unit Project International Programsin Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana April 1981
6 Christensen P J and R A Swanson SAFGRADFSU 1981 Research Programs Farfling Systems Unit Project International Programs inAgriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana April 1981
7 Cohen S Costs and Returns of Household Crop Production NedogoUpper Volta Department of Agricultural Economics Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana September 1982
8 Lang M R Cantrell and J IfSanirs Identifying Constraints and Evaluating New Techology in the Purdue Farming Systems Project in Upper Volta in C B Flora (ed) Animals in the Farming SystemKansas State University Manhattan Kansas pp 184-206 1984
9 Jaeger W K Animal Traction and Resource Productivity Evidence from Upper Volta in C B Flora (ed) Animals in the Farming ystem ibid pp 431-460 1984
10 Singh R D E W Kehrberg and W H M Morris Small FarmProduction Systems ii Upper Volta Descriptive and Productive Function Analysis Experiment Station Bulletin Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1984
11 Lang M G and 24 Roth Risk Perceptions and Risk Management byFarmers in Burkina F-aso Paper presented at the Annual FarmingSystems Conference at Kansas State University in 1984
83
12 Rhykerd C L Constraints and Research Needs for Livestock Production in Upper Volta International Programs in AgriculturePurdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1984
13 Sanders J H The Evolution of Farming Systems Research Towards Where International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1984
14 Roth M and J H Sanders An Economic Evaluation of AgriculturalTechnologies and Implications for Development Strategies in Burkina Faso International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana First presented at the Annual Farming SystemsConference at Kansas State University in 1984
15 Lang M G and R C Cantrell Accenting the Farmers Role Purdue Farming Systems Unit in P Matlon R Cantrell D King and M Benoit-Cattin (edited) Coming Full Circle Farmers Participation inthe Development of Technology International Developmernt Research Center Ottawa Canada pp 63-70 1984
16 Lang M H Ohm and R Cantrell Adaptability Analysis of Farmer-Managed Trials in Farming Systems Research International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1985
17 Lang M G Agricultural Production and Marketing Activities of Women in Burkina Faso International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1985
18 Lang M G Crop and Livestock Marketing Patterns in Burkina FasoInternational Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1985
19 Pardy C R Cereal Sales Behavior Among Farm Households in FourVillages in Burkina Faso International Programs i- AgriculturePurdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1985
20 Nagy J G and H W Ohm Economic Analysis of Tied Ridges and Fertilization in Farmer-Managed Sorghum Trials in Burkina Faso Paperpresented at the International Conference of AgricultLal Economists Malaga Spain 1985
21 Nagy J G L L Ames and H W Ohm Tecchnology Evaluation PilicyChange and Farmer Adoption in Burkina Fa Paper presented at the Farming Systems Symposium Kansas State University Manhattan Kansas 1985
22 Schaber L A Literature Review of Soil Fertility in the West Africa Semi-Arid Tropics (WASAT) International Programs in AgriculturePurdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1985
23 Sanders J H J G Nagy and B Shapiro Developing and EvaluatingNew Agricultural Technology for the Sahel A Case Study in Burkina Faso Submitted to Economic Development and Cultural Change 1985
84
24 Ohm H W and J G Nagy (Editcrs) Appropriate Technologies for Farmers in Semi-Arid West Africa International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1985 359 pages (also available in French)
25 Roth M P Abbott J Sanders and L McKinzie An Application of Whole-Farm Modelling to New Technology Evaluation Central Mossi Plateau Burkina Faso International Programs in Agriculture Purdue bniversity West Lafayette Indiana 1986
26 Diallo N N and J C Nagy Burkini Faso Access and Control of Resources in the Farming Systems Recent Legal Political and Socio-Economic Changes Paper presented at the Conference on Gender Issues in Farming Systems Research and Extension Gainesville Florida February 1986
27 Nagy J C and L L Ames Evaluation of New Technologies in Burkina Faso Using Whole Farm Modelling Paper presented at the Annual Conference of American Agricultural Economists Reno Nevada 1986
28 Sanders J H and B Shapiro Agricultural Technology Development in Burkina Faso in Chapter 12 of Y Moses (ed) Proceedings African Agricultural Develompent Conference Technoloiy Ecology and Society California State Polytechnic Institute Pomona California 1986
29 Nagy J G H W Ohm L L Ames and L D Schaber Analysis of IITASAFGRAD Mechanical Ridge Tier International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1986
30 Nagy J G H W Ohm and S Sawadogo Burkina Faso A Case Study of the Purdue UniversitySAFGRAD Farming Systems Project forthcoming in the Florida Farming Systems Project Case Studies Series 1986
31 Ames L L A Preliminary Report on the Evaluation of New Technologies in Burkina Faso International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1986
32 Annual Report (English) 1979
33 Annual Report (English) 1980
34 Annual Report (English) 1982
35 Annual Report (English amp French) 1983
36 Annual Report (English amp French) 1984
37 Annual Report (English) 1985
38 End of Project Report 1986
85
Theses List
1 Kaylen A M Current Farming Conditions in Nedogo and Digre Upper Volta MS Thesis Department of Agricultural Economics Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana August 1982
2 Jaeger W K Agricultural Mechanization The Economics of Animal Traction in Burkina Faso Stanford University unpublished PhD thesis 1984 To be published as a book by Westview Press
3 Bukowski AS Performance of Grain Markets in Selected Areas of Burkina Faso MS Thesis Department of Agricultural Economics Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana May 1986 Utilized some of the data and research support from the FSU project in Upper Volta but was directly supported by INTSORMIL
4 Roth M An Econoimc Evaluation of Agricultural Policy in Burkina Faso West Africa A Sectoral Modeling Approach unpublished PhD dissertation Department of Agricultural Economics Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana May 1986 Utilized some of the data and research support from the FSU project in Upper Volta but was directly supported by INTSORMIL
5 Savadogo K An Analysis of the Economic and Socio-Demographic Determinants (E Household Food Consumption in Ouagaodugou Burkina Faso unpublished PhD dissertation Department of Agricultural Economics Purdvr University West Lafayette Indiana 1986
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure Page
1 West African Sahelian and Sudanian zones 2
2 FSU research sites and climatic zones Burkina Faso 4
3 Stages of the research process 15
6 Schematic view of farming systems 17
5 Flow chart for new technology evaluation in farm trials 19
6 The IITASAFGRAD mechanical ridge tier 50
LIST OF ACRONYMS
ANOVA Analysis of Variance CIAT Centro Internacional 6e Agricultura Tropical CIMMYT Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maiz y Trigo FCFA Franc Communaut6 Financire Africaine FSR Farming Systems Research FSSP Farming Systems Support Project FSU Purdue UniversitySAFGRAD Farming Systems Unit IARC International Agricultural Research Center IBRAZ Institut Burkinabamp de Recherches Agronomiques et Zootechniques ICARDA International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas ICRISAT International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid
Tropics iFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development IFDC International Fertilizer Development Center IITA International Institute of Tropical Agriculture ILRAD International Livestock Research and Development Program INTSORMIL International SorghumMillet Program IPIA International Programs in Agriculture (Purdue University) IRAT Institut de Recherches Agronomiques Tropicales et des Cultures
Vivri~res IRRI International Rice Research Center MRT Mechanical Ridge Tier NARC National Agriculture Research Center OAU Orgacization of African Unity PCV Peace Corps Volunteer SAFGRAD Semi-Arid Food Grain Research and Development Program USAID United States Agency for International Development WASAT West African Semi-Arid Tropics
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
Food production and consumption trends in the Third World over the past two decades have shifted world attention from Asia to Sub-Saharan Africa (Paulino and Mellor 1984) The Green Revolution in Asia--the increase in rice and wheat yields brought about by improved varieties and an expanded use of fertilizer and other purchased inputs--has greatly increased Asian per capita food production (Pinstrup-Andersen and Hazell 1985) A similar Green Revolution phenomenon however has not yet taken place in sub-Saharan Africa One of the areas of most concern in Sub-Saharan Africa is the geographical region of the West African semi-arid tropics (WASAT) Current food production and population growth trends have led many to adopt a Malthusian perspective about the future of the WASAT
The countries of the WASAT include Senegal Gambia Burkina Faso the southern portions of Mauritania Mali Niger and Chad and the northern portions of Ghana Benin Ni eria and Cameroon (Norman et al 1981) Troll (1966) defines semi-ard tropics as regions where precipitation exceeds potential evapotranspiration for 2 to 7 months of the year Figure I delineates the principal climatic zones in the WASAT based on annual rainfall levels (09 probability isohyets of 1931-60 rainfall data)
The WASAT is one of the poorest regions in the world with 1984 per capita yearly incomes for countries in the area ranging between $US 80 and $US 300 (McNamara 1985) The region as a whole has balance of trade and balance of payments problems The economies depend heavily on foreign aid borrowing and worker remittances People (labor) are one of the biggest exports from the region--an estimated 25 of the labor force of Burkina Faso works in neighboring non-WASAT areas (World Bank 1981) The region exhibits a bottom-heavy age pyramid with country population growth rates ranging between 25 to 30 per ear and a fertility rate averaging 65 children per adult female The growth in per capita food production (1971shy1984) for the region as a whole is negative while levels of food imports (largely from donor agencies) have increased dramatically over the last 25 years (McNamara 1985 Paulino and Mellor 1984)
The declining food production per capita is associated with the conshytinuing droughts of the 1968-73 and 1976-80 periods (Nicholson 1982) and the most recent 1984 drought Other factors such as inadequate economic incentives for farmers and the failure to adapt and adopt new agricultural technologies have also been cited as explanations for the failure of food production to accompany population growth
(Adapted from World Bank 1985)200 o0 200
ALGERIA -200
20
MAURITANIAOE
SahLan NLMALI 3XJ50n n6038 0
uda n - ne13A v C e 0L 0
10 GUINEA-BISS1U 00 2 00 GUINEA i S h i and Sud -nia Zones
SIERRA IVORY 0 IERA LEONECOAST
0HNI -
CLIMATIC ZONES AEO1 o0O Zones Rainfall
-- 350 - 30-Sahelo-aian P Sahelo- aian NL50 - 350
Sudanian 600 -800 0Komts 200 400 600 Sudano-Guinean Above 800 K oM lers shy
200 4 00
deg deg20 0 100 o 10c0 deg 20
Figure 1 West African Sahelian and Sudanian Zones
3
Since the WASAT does nLt have the manland pressure of much of Asia and Asia has been successful in rapidly increasing agricultural production in its prime agricultural areas it is useful to look at the resource base in this region The present manland ratios in the WASAT average roughly15 persons per sq km (World Bank 1985) compared with up to 600 persons per sq km in Asia (McNamara 1985) The poorer agricultural resource base of the WASAT however cannot support the high man-land ratio of Asia (Matlon 1985) For example in the older settlement villages of the Central Plateau of Burkina Faso manland ratios are as high as 60 persons per sqkm (World Bank 1985) These high manland ratios relative to the resource base have been causing the breakdown of the traditional bush-fallow farming systems Traditionally the crop area was cultivated for 3 to 5 years and then left idle for a decade or more to restore soil fertility In many of the older settlement villages increased population has meant limited access to new land a shortening of the fallow rotation period and the culshytivation of more marginal land (Norman et al 1982 Dugue 1985) For example in the village (Figure 2)of Nedogo Burkina Faso many fields have been cultivated as long as the farmers can remember (FSUSAFGRAD 1983) Moreover almost all the crop residues are utilized for feed or building materials or else burned further exhausting the fertility of the soil Declinin7 soil fertility in the older settled regions has bei disshyrupting the cereal production systems pushing the cereals into more marshyginal areas and encouraging a substitution of millet for sorghum (Ames 1986)
During the high rainfall period of the fifties and early sixties intensive crop production was further extended into the Sahelo-Sudanian zone (World Bank 1985) With the droughts and increased desertification of the late sixties and seventies many have become concerned with the posshysible interaction of human settlement and further desertification (Nicholson 1982 World Bank 1985) While this debate has not been resolved there is no doubt that the resource base in much of the Sahelo-Sudanian zone has further deteriorated The cereals deficit problem has become increasingly serious
All three phenomena--the disappearing fallow system the failure to incorporate crop residues and the extension of crop cultivation into more marginal agricultural regions--lead to further soil detcrioration in the absence of technological intervention In overpopulated agriculturalregions such as the Central Plateau of Burkina Faso the bush fallow systemis being replaced by a permanent cultivation system characterized by verylow and stagnant cereal yields (Lang et al 1984 see Ruthenberg 1980 for other examples of this dynamics)
Not all the WASAT is overpopulated Rather many of the regions can be characterized as frontier zones For example the eastern region of Burkina Faso (ie Diapangou Figure 2) with man-land ratios of 15 persons
I
oBURKINA FASO I Principal Cities 3 350
FSU Survey Villages Dori
OuaigoyaBangasse
deg 00 1i0
Dissankuy FauF
Bdobo ogo NGourma 800bullDioulasso bulloBE -I -NIN
TOGOBanfora
GHANA CLIMATIC ZONES Zones Rainfall
IVORY COAST Sahelian NLC- 350IVRYCASlSahelo-Sudanian 350 - 600
Sudanian 600 - 800 Sudano-Guinean Above 800
(I) NLC NORTHERN LIMIT OF CULTIVATION (2) ISOHYETS INn
00
Figure 2 FSU research sites and climatic zones of Burkina Faso
5
per sq km has surplus land and follows the bush-fallow system of cultivashytion However even on the frontier as population pressure increases in the next five years a phenomenon similar to what is now taking place on the Central Plateau of Purkina Faso would be expected to occur It is becoming increasingly important to develop land substituting technologies for the overpopulated regions And although labor substituting technolshyogies are presently still very important on the frontier at the present pace of developnnt the frontier zones will confront similar problems to those in the overpopulated regions during the next decade
Given the present cereals crisis in the WASAT it is becoming critical to develop or ad~pt new agricultural technologies which will reverse the Malthusian trends In the mid-sixties before the start ofthe Green Revolution similar Malthusian statements were made about the agricultural potential of the Indian sub-continent However during the late sixties and seventies agricultural regions in Asia with irrigation or regular assured rainfall had the mosc rapid growth rates in technology diffusion ever empirically documented Although the resource endowment in the WASAT is not as great as that of the Punjab and similar Asian regions research reported here will atuempt to show that there is substantial potential for cereal technology development in the WASAT
The technology development process in the Purdue UniversitySAFGRAD Farming Systems Unit Project had two phases The first phase was the development of a methodology to identify the pressing constraints to cereal production increase and the testing out on farmers fields of technology alternatives available from the experiment station and from similar climatic regions in other countries The second stage was the continued evaluation of successful technologies over a sufficiently long time period and in sufficient detail to allow researchers a feeling of reasonable conshyfidence in their recommendations to both experiment station researchers and to the extension service and government officials involved in agricultural development The principle chapters of this report (III and V) are conshycerned with these two phases of the technology development process The basic methodological concepts potentially useful in other WASAT countries from the farming systems research in Burkina Faso are synthesized in Chapter III In the technology evaluation of Chapter V the results of other WASAT agricultural researchers are combined with those of the Purdue UniversitySAFGRAD Farming Systems program to give a more comprehensive evaluation of the present state of cereal technology development in the WASAT The conclusions synthesize the technology evaluation to draw out the implications for agricultural policy and for future extension and research
6
Footnotes
Rainfall averages have declined by 100 to 150 mm per year since the mid
1960s Updated isohyets using 1961-1985 data were not available In depth information on the countries and regions of the WASAT can be obtained from Kowal and Kassam 1978 McNamara 1985 Norman et al 1981 and World Bank 1985
At present there is some scope for migration to lower population denshysity areas with better soils and rainfall within the WASAT since health investments have been made to eradicate river blindness in some of the more fertile valleys (Sanders et al 1986) Several relocation proshygrams have already been undertakca in Burkina Faso (McMillan 1979) Relocation programs are costly and represent a short to intermediate solution for the WASAI Also people are reluctant to relocate and leave family friends and familar surroundings
CHAPTER II
THE PURDUE SAFGRAD FARMING SYSTEMS UNIT
The Purdue University Farming Systems Unit (FSU) funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) was part of the Semi-Arid Food Grain Research and Development Project (SAFGRAD) from December 1978 to June 1986 SAFGRAD is a regional research coordinating program implemented by the Coordination Office of the Scientific Technical and Research Commission of the Organization of African Unity (OAUSTRC) The SAFGRAD project works in cooperation with 28 sub-Saharan member countries with the coordination office located in Ouagadougou Burkina Faso The principal objective of the SAFGRAD project is to coordinate and strengthen programs in the semi-arid regions of sub-Saharan Africa that are involved in improving sorghum maize millet cowpea and groundnut yields
In the West African Semi-Arid Tropics (WASAT) SAFGRAD coordinates a research and pre-extension program The regional on-station component research is headquartered at the Central Experiment Station at Kamboinse in Burkina Faso and undertaken by IITA and ICRISAT Another component of SAFGRAD in the WASAT is the Accelerated Crops Production Officers (ACPO) program which conducts regional pre-extension and demonstration trials An integral part of the overall program is the farming systems unit which provides linkages between on-station research and the ACPOextension proshygrams The research and extension personnel of SAFGRAD (including the FSR unit) meet yearly to submit an annual report to a Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) The TAC reviews the research programs and submits the results and recommendations to the Consultative Committee (CC) which is a management and policy committee for SAFGRAD The results are passed on to host country research and extension institutions
Within the SAFGRAD framework farming systems research for Burkina Faso was provided by Purdue University for seven years up to June 1986 In the seventies farming systems methodology was still in its infancy Its mandate included the development of methodological guidelines that could be implemented in host country national and SAFGRAD sponsored farming systems programs The specific objectives of FSU were as follows
1 to identify the principle constraints to increased food producshytion
2 to identify technologies appropriate for farmers which could overshycome the production constraints
3 to develop and implement a multidisciplinary research method which could guide production technology and production research to directly address these production constraints
8
4 to identify the elements of that method which could be implemented in national farming systems research programs and
5 to train host country personnel to assume increasing responsibilshyity in their contribution to research
During the life of the FSU program agronomic and socio-economic research was conducted at the on-farm level in five villages (Figure 2) The pecific operational procedures and evolution of the FSU program are reported in Nagy et al 1986b The agronomic and soci-economic field campaign findings of the FSU program are presented in FSU Annual Reports and other FSU publications
In the final year of the contract the FSU program completed the transfer of its in-country taff arid program to tie national agricultural research institution of Burkina Faso (IBRAZ) FSU also worked with the IFAD supported SAFGRAD farming systems personnel aho backstop the national farming systems programs in Butkina Faso and Benin Through regional symshyposia and consultation the methodology and results were made available to other SAFOPAD countries as well Details of the program transfer and field staff training component of objective 5 are reported in the 1985 FSU Annual Report (Nagy and Ohm 1986)
CHAPTER III
FARMING SYSTEMS METHODOLOGY IN THE WEST AFRICAN SEMI-ARID TROPICS (WASAT)
Introduction
The basic concept of farming systems research is that the research system could function more efficiently if more information on the conshystraints which prevent farmers from improving their well-being was obtained at an earlier stage of the research development process than is common in the developing countries Farm-level constraints can be identified with both surveys and on-farm trials A further extension is to supplement the on-farm trials with whole-farm modeling This chapter will be concerned with all three approaches
In developed countries the two-way linkages of communication between farmers and agricultural scientists function better than in the WASAT due to higher educational levels of the farmers better agricultural informashytion systems and financial mechanisms in developed countries which reward the agricultural research establishments and individual scientists for their contributions to resolving farm-level production problems Farming systems esearch can provide an alternative communication linkage which does not require advancements in general education or major changes in the institutional orientation of national research systems
The clientele of Farming Systems Research will depend upon the instishytutional setting and the stage of development of the technology In the initial phases of the agricultural development process as in the WASAT the most important directional flow of information is to the researchers for several reasons First farming systems even in low input agriculshyture are very complex with many systems interactions Farmers have multiple objectives and constraints and these can vary in importance and evolve over time and even in response to the conditions of the production season (Norman 1982)
Agricultural scientists in developing countries often underinvest in understanding these complex systems and farmers objectives before beginshyning research Further they may not adequately respond to knowledge which is available When farmers do not adopt the technologies produced on the experiment station and recommended to them the initial reaction of agricultural scientists in developing countries is often that the problem of non-adoption is with the farmers the extension service or national economic policies rather than with the technologies themselves
Technology development requires a thorough understanding of the scienshytific concepts applied on the experiment station plus a multi-disciplinary approach to understanding the complexity of the farmers environment farmshying systems and decision-making process The most fundamental difference between the experiment station and farmers fields is the necessary shift
10
from component parts of new technologies as produced on the experiment station to systems with impor ant interactions such as are characteristic of farmers production systems
Farming Systems Research helps to overcome these differences by nashybling agricultural scientists to improve their understanding of the comshyplexity of the farmers systems and thereby become more efficient at idenshytifying and resolving the research problems involved in overcoming farmers constraints Two desired final products are a more efficient agricultural research system and an increase in mutual comprehension between farmers and researchers Another product is the facilitation of adoption of new sysshytems of agricultural technology so that these systems can be more rapidly incorporated into the testing and diffusion program of the extension servshyice
The principal stages in farming systems research can be identified by responding to the following questions
a) What do you do first to describe the farmers production systems How much description is enough
b) How do you plan and organize on-farm trials When do you do it What are the differences between experiment station and on-farm trials
c) How do you analyze and supplement the data coming out of the onshyfarm trials What are the relevant questions to be answered about new technology performance on farms
d) At some point in technology development outside factors (exogenous variables) such as economic policy or the further development of input production or distribution capacity such as a fertilizer marketing system improved credit or a seed industry may be constraining technology introduction How does FSR set up its own boundaries while still maximizing its effectiveness in providing relevant information to facilitate the production of new technologies
e) Who should do the farming systems research Presently International Agricultural Research Centers spend an estimated 10 to 15 million dollars annually on FSR (Anderson and Dillon 1985 p 1)
The following sections of the paper will attempt to address these speshycific questions on farming systems methodology Clearly there will be some biases from the experiences of the Farming Systems Unit in Burkina Faso and the otber FSR experiences of the authors These eperiences will be utilized as illustrations
11
Describing Farmers Environments Production Systems and Objectives The Baseline Study Stage
If the principal objective of tarming systems research is to improve the understanding of agricultural scientists about farm-level conditions then this data-collection or description process must begin with them They help to define the research problems and objectives of the fieldwork and to understand the particular target group of farmers Agricultural scientists need to be involved in farm-level research design in order to provide more information and to evaluate the accuracy of their hypotheses about farmer conditions and decision-making
The utilization of baseline studies for developing research priorities requires the identification and ranking of the principle conshystraints to increased output of the commodities studied This is not a simple process since there will be a strong bias from the individual disshyciplines of the researchers in the definition of the farm-level constraints Breeders will identify varietal characteristics for overcomshying specific yield constraints pathologists diseases economists will point out particular policies or markets which reduce the profitability of specific new technologies Hence a multi-disciplinary approach to the definition of constraints will be necessary from the beginning of the research design process Some investment by researchers in the tnderstandshying of other disciplines will also be necessary
Useful baseline research has included the economic quantification of production losses from various insects and diseases This information helped confirm the research strategies of resistance breeding for field beans at CIAT (Sanders 1984 Sanders and Lynam 1982) Similarly in Burkina Faso the initial anthropological descriptions of faring systems (M Saunders 1980) and the economic analysis of farmers objectives and seasonal labor constraints helped provide orientation for agricultural researchers in the farm trials (Lang et al 1984)
An important issue within this baseline stage is that it is extremely easy to overinvest in data collection and descriptive surveys Moreover much of the literature on farming systems puts an excessive emphasis on baseline data collection so that the research problem identification hyposhytheses analytical methodologies and even literature reviews are neglected The frequent consequence is the amassing of large quantities of data which are only partially analyzed Even with analysis much of the data collection traditionally undertaken at this stage of FSR has resulted in interesting descriptions of little relevance to researchers in reshydefining their research priorities
There are several methods for avoiding the pitfalls of random and largely irrelevant data collection The first is an extension of a method presently utilized by many agricultural scientists to identify for themshyselves the important constraints in farmers fields This involves their going into the field to see farm-level problems in their disciplinary
12
3 area A simple extension is to make these field trips multi-disciplinary and to involve some pre-trip discussion and mutual definition of field objectives If farm-level interviewing remains unstructured the datashyamassing problem can be avoided Multi-disciplinary collaboration is begun and can bd continued in the development of a report synthesizing the field observations Often these initial trips or sondeos have led to more formal multi-disciplinary questionnaire development and surveying in a second stage Clearly with the involvement of several disciplines the demand for data can increase exponentially
To more rapidly interest the agricultural scientists a different technique is suggested At any given time agricultural scientists genershyally have their own ideas of what will work on farmers fields These ideas can come directly from their own experiments from observations of farmers in other regions or from Vhe literature The suggestion here is to move rapidly into on-farm trials This will then give a defined frameshywork for supplementing on-farm trials with diagnostic surveys which have well-defined objectives ie to better evaluate specific socio-economic issues involved in introducing these new technologies tested on the farmshyers fields into the farmers production system
In these baseline surveys of the functioning of the farm and household systems at the beginning of an FSR project the anthropologists and sociologists have often made outstanding contributions to our understanding (M Saunders 1980 Reeves and Frankenberger 1982) When these surveys by the social scientists have been integrated with the research objectives of agricultural scientists their utility has been further increased It is recommended that a farming systems project begin with baseline surveys of farm and household conditions in each major target area preferably undershytaken by an anthropologist (also see Simmonds 1984 p 74) These baseshyline studies and a commencement of on-farm trials in the first production season are suggested as the appropriate way to begin farming systems reshysearch in the WASAT
The principal emphasis here is on moving rapidly to on-farm trials with supplementary analysis to provide understanding of the potential role of the new technologies in the whole farm system The methodology for this type of evaluation will be explained in detail in the fourth section on Evaluation As this type of on-farm testing and modeling analysis is being undertaken further diagnostic surveys are often useful to complement the principal investigation of the on-farm trials and farm modeling An exshyample in the Burkina Faso FSU program after three to five years of on-farm testing in different villages was a survey to evaluate adoption by parshyticipant and non-participant farmers of the new technologies tested
Designing and Implementing On-Farm Trials
There are two central issues in the implementation of on-farm trials First multi-disciplinary collaboratin is essential especially between agricultural scienmtists and economists Secondly the research objectives
13
of the experiment station and on-farm trials are different hence the organization design and arnalysis of the on-farm trials are different from those on the experiment station
True multi-disciplinary collaboration is not easy since each discishypline has its body of literature its journals certain statistical methods customarily dominated by its practitioners and even its philosophical attitudes about research and the process of agricultural development Moreover universities and many agricultural research institutions are organized by discipline Promotions in universities are linked to publicashytions in the high prestige journals of individual disciplines
To overcome these barriers between disciplines strong institutional support and continued personal relationships are both required There is a tendency in farming systems projects to give control of the on-farm trials to either the biological or the social scientists or to compartmentalize their efforts For example the agricultural scientists might manage the researcher-managed on-farm trials and the economists the farmer-managed trials Or the agricultural scientist might ask the economists help in interpreting data without collaborating with himher on field research planning and design
The most basic differences between agricultural scientists and econoshymists are in their treatment of data (Collinson 1981 p 442) Agriculshytural scientists are trained to be extremely careful in data generation to verify results over a number of years and to utilize variations of analyshysis of variance to analyze the significance of yield differences However policymakers generally need new technology recommendations in short time periods and farmers are more interested in the profitability and fit into their operati s of one or two new systems of production than in the idenshytification of the level of significance of the treatments and their interactions
Economists with simple modeling and synthetic estimates (judgements of agricultural scientsts) can help fill the gap between the public policymakers and the farmers demands for new technology information and the output from agricultural scientists Some knowledge of the agriculshytural sciences and some simple modeling are the necessary components of the economists contribution The primary requisite for successful interdisshyciplinary collaboration is the desire of the team to respond rapidly to real world problems of technology evaluation even if the data utilized are preliminary and some of them are synthetic Preliminary results can always be refined and improved with further experiments andor data collection and analysis
One important contribution of Farming Systems Research has been to demonstrate the strategic importance of on-farm testing of new technologies as a critical component of the agricultural research process (for an estishymate of the rate of return to this research see Martinez and Arauz 1984) The primary unit in new technology production is the experiment station
14
However once the component parts of new technologies have been tested on the experiment station they can be combined into packages and tested under a wide range of farming conditions (Figure 3) The synergistic or multishyplicative (rather than additive) impact of combining several factors of production is well kriown in the agricultural sciences The individual factors are identified and measured on the experiment station In the onshyfarm trials combinations of factors are evaluated to identify new systemsof production that are profitable and fit into farmers production systems
On the experiment station non-treatment inputs are held at fixed but generally high levels so that they do not affect the performance of the treatment input(s) Usually the potential for static (increased variance) in the response of the treatment input(s) is reduced by the high levels of utilization of other inputs Experiment station trials tend to study one or sometimes two factors in considerable detail Experiment stations are usually selected in the best agricultural regions and over time due to different cultural practices the agricultural conditions become substanshytially different from those on farmers fields (Sanders and Lynam 1982 Byerlce Collinson et al 1981)
Once the more basic experiments have been undertaken on the station and before recommendations are made farm-level testing is necessary If the technology performance depends upon soil climate insect or disease incidence the farm trials can help identify these factors and estimate the economic impact of overcoming the specific constraint at different levels of its incidence For example fertilizers will have a larger impact in low soil fertility regions and a disease resistant variety will be more impressive where the disease occurs A water retention technique such as tied ridges wouli be expected to work better in the heavier soils In sandier soils the ridges will be more rapidly destroyed by wind or water Moreover the on-farm trials provide a crude estimate of the relative importance of the specific constraints on the farmers fields during the production period evaluated
One method for analyzing these betwcen-farm differences in new techshynology puiformance in greater detail is to utilize a large number of farms for the farm-level trials Repetitions are often made by increasing the number of farms rather than includi ig repetitions on each farm site (DeDatta et al 1978 Sanders and Lynam 1982) One implication of this design is that variance within farms cannot he separated Another is that within any constrained planting zeason a larger number of farms can be included
Another way to handle the between-farm variation in technology perforshymance is to stratify the environments in which the technology is evaluated
15
Experiment Station On-Farm Trials
More Basic Research More Applied Research
Component Research Systems or Package Research
Variance from Non-Treatment Analyze Variance from Non-Factors Minimized Treatment Factors
Repetitions on Same Experiment Replications Across Farms
New Technologies Originate Hrre New Technologies Evaluated Here Primary Activity Secondary Activity
Emphasis on Feedback of Information to Researchers in the Experiment Station
Based Upon Technology Performance on Farms--Request Technology Modifications from the Experiment Station
To Extension Service for Further Testing and Dissemination
Figure 3 Stages of the research process
SOURCE Adapted from Sanders and Lynam 1982 p 99
16
Soil types rainfall regimes or even farmer characteristics can be utilshyized to define research domains However the performance of many new technologies under different farm-level conditions is often a stochastic event The incidence of diseases and insects is unknown at planting time so there is no way to define research domains for these problems If there is a large sample the data carn be stratified after the trials Since it is often difficult in practice to minimize the on-farm performance variashytions of new technologies by defining research (or recommendation) domains with homogeneous characteristics it is frequently necessary to employlarger sample sizes ie more on-farm trials The number of trials necessary will also depend upon the types of technologies evaluated
In the initial years of on-farm testing (early and mid-70s)economists and other social scientists frequently administered the trials Over time agricultural scientists have generally taken over the implemenshytation of these trials This transition has improved trial quality since agricultural scientists are trained for this activity However the failure to adequately specify the objectives of on-farm testing can lead to trials which are only replicas of experiment centtation trials
With the above detailed examination of the on-farm methodologies it is easy to forget that the origin of new technologies is the experimentstation This is the primary unit in the technology development processThe on-farm testing performs an important evaluation function in the reshysearch production process but it is secondary to the primary organ of agricultural research the experiment station Moreover the quality of the on-farm trials will depond upon the input from the agriculturalscientist In the design and the evaluation phases the interdisciplinary input especially fcom econiomists will be critical
The integration of the on-farm and station-based research and their links to diagnostic surveys of the farmers in the target regions and to the operational research utilizing the data resulting from the on-farm trials are [llustrated in Figure 4 As mentioned previously both the diagnostic surveys and the evaluation of on-farm trials have important roles and should function simultaneously The operational research for the evaluashytion of these on-farm triaLs will be considered in the next section
Evaluation of On-Farm Technology Performance
The on-farm trials combine several factors or component parts preshyviously evaluated on he experiment station into different systems or packages Isolating each factor aid its interactions in these trials freshyquently becomes unmanageable Beets (1982) cites an IRRI cropping systemexperiment with 750 possible treatment combinations However 7 the princishypal concern of the on-farm trials is to identify combinationswhich are profitable of factorsand fit into the farmers systems of produccion
17
Target group farmers of a recommendation
domain in a Vagion
Survey diagnosis of farmer priorities resource and environment problems and development opportunities
Identification ofunsolved technical problems and possible new practices and materials relevant to farmers development opportunities
On-farm adaptive research
Operational research for identification and evaluation of materials and techniques
offering potential for problemsolution and the exploitation
of opportunities
Station-based technical
On-farm testing via experiments on apparentl relevant materials and techniques under farmers conditions
Use of existing body of knowledge of materials and techniques suitable for the climate and soils of the ion
Component research usingcommodity and disciplinary
research solvingpriority technical problems
and investigating possible new materials and practices
Figure 4 Schematic view of farming systems research method (after Collinson 1982)
18
The treatments of the on-farm trials representing different systems pass through three phases of evaluation (Figure 5) The first phase is identical to the experiment-station analysis some variation of analysis of variance (ANOVA) It determines whether under farmers conditions there are significant yield differences with the new technologies as comparedwith the treatment representing traditional farmers practices
However technology needs to move beyond yield differences to be acceptable to farmers With a minimal increase in data requirements from the local environment the yield data from the treatments are converted into gross and then net revenue utilizing product prices and input costs This simple budgeting answers the second question in the flowchart of Figure 5 Is the new technology more profitable than farmers traditional practices
Mention should be made here of two frequently cited problems with simple budgeting (a) price variation over time and within the production season and (b) costing of non-traded inputs such as land and family labor Product prices can vary substantially within a year especially with the customary post-harvest price collapse and between years in regions with substantial climatic fluctuations and limited governmental role in pricestabilization Moreover input costs will depend upon government subsidies and the real input costs to the farmer will also depend upon the availability of an input such as fertilizer at the right place and the right time Questions about the appropriate prices and costs to be utilshyized in the evaluation are valid concerns which need to be dealt with in the economic analysis of new technology
Price variability and the effects of government policy and market development mean that profitability is a complicated decision which can be influenced by the farmers marketing strategies and by macro factors outshyside the farmers control Nevertheless farmers need to be able to devise some strategy to make a profit from a new technology Sensitivity analysiswhich varies the prices and costs over the relevant range can be utilized to respond to this problem The simple budgeting analysis of on-farm trials is usually a mean or median estimate The variation in yield pershyformance and prices received between farms is a useful complement to this measure
Some of the relevant inputs that neeJ to be costed for budgetinganalysis may not have a market price In the WASAT family labor duringcertain periods for performing specific cultural operations such as the first weeding has a very high implicit value and may even be constrainingcertain types of output expansion Mathematical programming models take into account the implicit value of the inputs and put a cost on them (shadow price) whereas budgeting treatments make some arbitrary assumpshytions about the labor market Land rental depreciation of the capitalinput and management costs are also difficult to estimate and are
19
Trial New farm results trials
(1)
Are there Yes significant Increases No
Infarm yields with the new technologytech~(noloy
(2) farms be
Ysmore
Is thenwtechnology
profitable than
farmers practices~(multiple
Noaffecting
stratified bycharacteristics
the successful
performance of the newregres-
Yes
sion cluster analysis)
(3)
Yes new technology N Newfit into the No [experiments
farmers production system(programming marketing)
extension service Analysis and diagnosisL
for further testing feedback for andor technology redesign
extension
FLgure 5 Flow Chart for New Technology Evaluation in Farin Trials
Source Sanders and Lynam 1982 p 100
In any of the three stages of evaluation a new technology treatment may not pass the criteria based upon mean values Then astratification of farms is attempted upon an a priori basis For example the performance of a fertilizer technology would beInfluenced by the soil types Ifthere were two types of soils and there was a return to fertilization on one and not the other thenstratification into these two groups would be undertaken For the subgroup of farms where the fertilizer technology waseffective the three stages of evaluation would commence again The subgroup where fertilization was not effective would raiseresearch questions for analysis and diagnosis as Indicated in the above flowchart
20
often omitted in the simple or partial budgeting In spite of the difshyficulties of costing some inputs and the price variation profitability comparisons with sensitivity analysis give substantially more information than yield comparisons
Nevertheless even profitability is not a sufficient criteria for farmer acceptance A new system may be profitable but may require more labor at a peak period than the farmer can release from his other operashytions or the new activity may have much higher capital requirements than the farmer can obtain The third question (Figure 5) is whether the techshynology fits into the farmers production system Whereas simple budgeting can indicate that one activity is more profitable than another mathematishycal programming takes into account all other present and potentialactivities and the available on-farm and off-farm resources Utilizing this technique and the above information an estimate of the extent of potential adoption of a new technology on a representative farm can be made Moreover the farm-level constraints to the further adnption of more profitable nctivities can be identified Clearly the value of this modelshying will depend upon the researchers understanding of the farming systpmand his ability to simplify the model to the essential elements
These mathematical programming whole-farm modeling techniques have been operationalized at the farm level for approximately twenty years so their practical value in assisting public and farmer decision-making in developed countries has been repeatedly demonstrated (Doster et al 1981 McCarl 1982) One difficulty in the implementation of this technique in developing countries has been the computer requirement however the rapid diffusion of micro computers to the developing countries is resolving this problem even in the WASAT Nevertheless there is a necessary time investshyment involved in training the technicians economists and agricultural scientists to implement the se models and to interpret the results
Mathematical programming forces researchers to focus their data colshylection on the systems problems of production in a whole-farm context (forreviews and applications see Anderson et al 1985 Ghodake and Hardakef 1981 Roth et al 1986) Simple technical coefficients representing the relationships between inputs and outputs and the resources available to the farmer are the relevant data sets for evaluation of profitability and the fit of the new technologies into the farmers systems of productionAdjustments in the modeling can be made for more complicated farmer beshyhaviors than profit maximization Risk avoidance can be explicitlyincluded in the analysis with programming Other constraints imposed byeconomic and technical factors can frequently be included
Another step in technology evaluation could be the analysis of the intra- and inter-household effects (see McKee 1984 Nagy Ohm and Sawadogo 1986) There has been much concern recently with the role of women in farm production and consumption analysis more specific considerashytion of their roles in land use investment and consumption decisions are warranted Moreover specific technologies could have equity effects on
21
different types o6 farms and policymakers are often concerned with these potential outcomes
Many other considerations could also be raised such as environmental concerns or the cultural trauma often associated with economic or institushytional change However the emphasis of this paper is responding to the three questions in the flow diagram of Figure 5 Positive answers to these questions have been associated with farmer adoption of new technologies in both Colombia (Sanders and Lynam 1982 p 104) and Burkina Faso (Sanders et al 1985 pp 24-28) thus providing support for the evaluation criteria presented here These evaluation criteria as reflected in the three questions of Figure 5 appear to be logical simple and powerful for undertaking farm-level evaluation of new technologies
Micro vs Macro Approaches to Farming Systems Research
The farming system fits into and is affected by many larger systems Agricultural policy the availability of inputs and the functioning of the product markets all affect farm-level decisions about new technologies and farm-level planning for the development of new technologies
The most conservative approach in on-farm technology development is to assume that all these systems are not evolving and to attempt to develop new farming systems for the present levels of development in the other systems In the WASAT this orientation would precipitate a search for minimum input cost systems such as
a) new varieties used without chemical inputs such as inorganic fertilizer
b) higher densities c) different planting dates d) different rotations e) more systematic use of multiple cropping f) more utilization of on-farm inputs such as mulch and manure
These types of marginal changes are attempts to obtain small yield increments utilizing either available resources on the farm or an input such as a new variety which requires a minimal cash expenditure Oneshyinput changes of available resources such as planting dates and rotations are easy for farmers to implement and observe and many farmers carry on small experiments of this type The observation that farmers are not utilizing these adjustments appears to be good evidence that there are technical reasons for them not to utilize them G~ferally the yield effects of the small adjustments ate either very small or under certain natural condit ns they precipitate other problems irn the cropping system For example in Colombia higher field bean densities significantly inshycreased disease incidence even with spraying (CIAT 1979 p 92)
In the last decade the French international agricultural research institute (IRAT) has been joined by three other institutes (CIMMYT
22
ICRISAT and IITA) in the WASAT Their principal research activity has been the development of new food crop varieties especially cereals Yet few cereal varieties have been successful enough to displace local cultivars Matlon (1985) estimated that the new cereal varieties presently occupy less than 5 of the WASAT crop area In our view new varieties unaccompanied by other inputs belong in this group of marginal changes which have had little impact Why Much of the WASAT is characterized by inadequate and irregular rainfall and low fertility soils These are difficult agricultural conditions for one-inpit changes Therefore it appears that WASAT farmers will neei to itilize higher levels oflyurchased inputs and to take more risks in order t) increase their incomes
Presently the level of purchased input utilization in the WASAT especially chemical inputs is extremely low The eight Sahelian countries have the lowest chemical fertilizer consumption in the world at less than 3 kgha on crops Animal traction is still in the introductory stage at less than 15 of the farmers in the WASAr (Matlon 1985) Moreover only a smail portion of the cereals are marketed (less than 10 in FSU sample villages on the Central Plateau in Burkina Faso) Only 3 of the cropland in the eight Sahelian countries is irrigated (Matlon 1983) With these low levels of input use and infrastructure it does not appear to be approshypriate to develop new technologies for high levels of input use However it is important to make improvements in the marketing systems so that modshyerate input levels can be utilized and there will be increased marketing of the cereals
Marginal changes such as the minimal input utilization changes disshycussed previously are not expected to be sufficient to interest farmers or to lead to sustained yield increases Moderate input levels including chemical inputs are expected to be necessary to obtain significant yield increases which fit economically into the farmers production systems (see Chapter V for specific details on chemical fertilizer) Hence as new technologies are being developed and implemented over time input and proshyduct marketing institutions must also evolve The development of these markets may require governmental support and further research The effishyciency of the para-statal product marketing agencies and the role of prishyvate and public institutions in input markets are two primary issues of concern in the present agricultural development literature on Sub-Saharan Africa
What role should FSR projects have in influencing agricultural policy and other macro issues Historically there has been an urban bias in agricultural policies in most WASAT countries To keep food prices low for urban consumers WASAT governments have frequently intervened via parashystatal marketing organizations To compensate farmers for the low product prices these same governments often have provided input subsidies to farmshyers Presently the World Bank and US AID hTje been pressuring WASAT governments to eliminate these input subsidies At least in the short run this will reduce the profitability of agriculture discourage investshyment in agriculture and delay technology adoption Part of the evaluation
23
of new technologies by the FSR program should include some sensitivity analysis to estimate the farm-level effects of various agricultural polishycies including the elimination of input subsidies
In the recent summarv of FSR for the World Bank (Simmonds 1984) a distinction was drawn betweei modifications to present farming systems and entirely new systems of production Improved agronomy with moderate levels of inputs and ultimately introducing new varieties for these improved systems would be in the first category (and see Chapter V for concrete examples) However many of the poorer more marginal environments in the WASAT ultimately will need to gradually withdraw from crop production and move into grazing systems or forestry Crop farming in the WASAT migrated further north after the high rainfall period of the fifties As yield increases are attained in those regions of rainfed aiculture with more potential and in the river valleys and irrigated areas some present crop areas can be returned to more extensive agricultural systems Farming systems research will need to make some decisions about the regions with the most agricultural potential For those truly marginal regions more comprehensive systems changes may be necessary than are customarily evaluated in farming systems research
r-tional policy factors and national agricultural development planshyning cannot be ignored in FSR Many of these macro factors and evolving changes need to be explicitly incorporated into the analysis of which technologies and regions are appropriate for evaluation Nevertheless it is recommended that modeling concentrate on the farm level Without much better micro data and analysis than is presently available in most developshying countries extending farm models to sector analysis seems to be only a training device for economists rather than a useful exercise to enlighten agricultural development planners As the micro-modeling foundation is improved in the next five to ten years the agricultural sector models will be able to give a more useful input into agricultural policy formulation in the WASAT countries
Which agencies should undertake the on-farm testing
FSR presently takes five to ten percent of the budgets of several IARCs (Simmonds 1984 pp 67 68) and the IARCs have generally taken a leadership role in field application of on-farm testing The long-run frequently stated objective of the IARCs is to turn this activity over to the national agricultural research systems (NARC) The rationale is that the on-farm trials give very location-specific results The IARCs can develop methodologies and demonstrate the utilization of new research activities to the NARCs but ultimately larger numbers of on-farm trials in many regions will need to be undertaken in developing countries to evaluate the diverse technologies being produced in the IARCs and NARCs Not only does the scale of this testing make it infeasible for the IARCs to undertake all of it themselves but also much of the testing will be outside the commodity mandates of the individual IARCs
24
The institutional placement of on-farm testing depends upon the relative importance of the two clienteles for the products of the research at a given stage of technology development These two potential clienteles are the extension seryjce and the agricultural researchers On-farm trials which are successful give important information to the extension service and to those public officials involved with agricultural policy On-farm trials which are not successful give feedback on farm-level problems with the technologies to researchers at the experiment stations in both the national and international centers
If the primary emphasis of the on-farm trials needs to be on feedshyback then there are two problems with the present location of most farming systems research in the IARCs First several of the centers put the principal emphasis of their on-farm trials on providing information for the NARCs and the extension services (Simmonds 1985 pp 92-97) Presently there is less concern with feedback from the on-farm trials to IARC reshysearchers on the relevance and problems of the technologies they are developing Organizationally it appears to be very difficult for a divishysion of one institution to ierve for very long as an effective critic of its own activities
Secondly most of the IARCs Pre crop-breeding institutions including CIMMYT IRRI CIAT ICRISAT ICARDA and IITA Two of these centers CIMMYT and IRRI have been very successful in producing new varieties for those environments with adequate assured water availability and moderate to high levels of input utilization However in most of the harsher environments including the WASAT where these conditions are not met improvements in agronomy to attain moderate purchased input levels may need to precede the introduction of new varieties On-farm testing undertaken or financed by the IARCs tends to concentrate on the varietal effect since that is their mandate In these harsher environments institutions other than the IARCs (or even the NARCs which receive IARC assistance of new germ plasm) may need to do the on-farm testing
This on-farm testing in harsher climatic regions such as the WASAT would concentrate first on identifying agronomic improvements ie the combination of measures to improve water retention and soil fertility At a later stage the IARCs and NARCs could develop new varieties for these improved (but not high input) production systems The main points here are that at least in the WASAT stage of agricultural development the princishypal focus of on-farm testing will need to be on feedback to the research station and the principal focus of research on agronomic improvements
On-farm testing can be considered either as the last stage of the agricultural research process befcre passing the innovation on to the Extension Service or the first stage of the Extension process before demonstration trials and active diffusion measures Clearly there needs to be interaction between the NARC and the Extension Service consisting of the regular exchange of information and even planning of the on-farm trials If there is sufficient exchange of information and collaboration
25
in on-farm trial design the institutional location of these trialswill be less important
In summary on-farm trials will need to be undertaken by most agencies involved in agricultural experimentation in the WASAT Communication barriErs are sufficiently large between scientists and farmers that this type of intermediate activity is expected to be necessary for several decades since the IARCs NARCs and other agencies apparently need this source of feedback on the performance of their technologies Since we have been stressing the importance of feedback all through this chapter we argue that the on-farm trials should be located in the research rather than the extension entity so that feedback results are more readily acceptable at the experiment station
As on-farm trials move into the NARCs and are financed by their own internal financial resources lower ccst methods for conducting on-farm trials must be sought These trials tend to be very intensive in their use of highly qualified scientific manpower for planning and evaluation Their execution requires good logistic support and training for a large number of field workers It would appear that in the WASAT external financing and external scientific manpower will be necessary for some time to continue high levels of on-farm testing
Conclusions
Defining farmers constraints to increasing agricultural production is a complicated task best illustrated by example In the conclusions to this report (Chapter VI) we return to this problem to illustrate the conshytribution of the Purdue farming systems project to constraint identification in the WASAT Meanwhile the survey process can be divided into an initial or baseline study which describes the farmers production and household systems and supplementary or diagnostic surveys which invesshytigate particular research areas as they arise For the baseline study the in-depth village-household production and consumption analyses freshyquently undertaken by anthropologists and sociologists seem especially relevant to an understanding of the farming systems in the areas specifishycally targeted for further research activity during the on-farm stage of FSR Supplementary diagnostic 3urveys can then be undertaken in response to specific objectives of th farm-level work especially the on-farm testing of new technclogies These will often be within the disciplinary area of agricultural economists In the modeling stage of the evaluation process there will frequently be a need for supplementary farm business or household information
One primary recommendation here is that the on-farm testing phase of the FSR begin in the first production season Agricultural scientists will generally have a series of recommendations of component parts for farm testing Putting these individual factors together into technology packages and testing them under farmers conditions will help to further develop their understanding of farmers objectives and systems The
26
agricultural scientists will generally have much more interest in field experiments than in the diagnostic surveys In this initial stage of onshyfarm testing the principal direction of information flow will be feedback to the researchers as the packages are expected to have either technical or economic prulblems impeding their acceptance by farmers
Multi-disciplinary collaboration especially between the agricultural scientists and economists is essential for the on-farm testing Agriculshytural scientists know well the mechanics of the testing process Econoshymists understand the farmers objectives Both need to collaborate to understand the interactions and complexities of farmers systems of proshyduction There should be collaboration in research design to avoid replishycating experiment station trials and to obtain the necessary data for economic analysis
On the farm the treatments are generally different systems of production rather than individual factors The analysis proceeds from a statistical analysis of the significance of yield differences to economic concerns with profitability and the fit into the farmers systems of proshyduction The comparison between treatments analyzes the potential benefits to the farmers from new technology adoption since the control is a proxy for the farmers system of production The simplest economic analysis is the evaluation of profitability using partial budgets However this type of analysis is not as simple as it appears because of price variation and the difficulty of attiibutinrg prices to some production factors Generally an attempt is made to overcome these budgeting problems with sensitivity analysis
The final step in the evaluation is to consider the potential fit of the activity irto the farmers systems of production with mathematical proshygramming This whole f=crm analysis simulates the farmers decision-making process by including information on all present and potential activities using the data on on-farm and off-farm resource availabilities New sysshytems of production that pass through all three stages of this evaluation are expected to be adopted by farmers There is some adoption evidence from both Colombia and Burkina Faso supporting the above assertion
In the harsh envirarunent of the WASAT given the very low utilization of purchased inputs at present marginal agronomic changes such as density timing or even varietal change are expected to have little or even negashytive impact Larger systems changes involving technologies which simultaneously augment water conservation and soil fertility are hypothesized as necessary in order to raise yields sufficiently so that these new systems not only yield more than farmers practices on their own fields but also are profitable and fit into farmers production systems
National economic and agricultural policies can have a large impact on technology evaluation and even the planning of FSR Policymakers need to be concerned with creating an environment in which farmers can make money from adopting new technologies In the short run in the WASAT the
27
elimination of input subsidies especially if ceilings are retained for product prices will make it more difficult for farmers to profit from new technology adoption By evaluating the impact of different agricultural and economic policies on the farm-level profitability and potential adopshytion of new technologies the FSR program may be able to help influence governmental policy formation
Another impact of national policy is on agricultural development planning Frequently FSR programs are designed for marginal agricultural areas Alternatives to developing technologies for these regions may be public health investments in river valleys and yield-improving strategies in the dryland regions with better agricultural resources If yields can be sufficiently improved for the higher resource regions some shifting into livestock or even forestry may be appropriate land-use decision for the more marginal agricultural areas For these types of land-use changes government would need to finance the human resettlement costs Change in agricultural activities of this magnitude are not generally included in FSR Hence Simmonds (1984 p 121) developed a new term for it New Farming Systems Develonment (NFSD)
In the WASAT a prerequisite to new variety development appears to be the simultaneous utilization of moderate input levels to improve water retention and soil fertility Once these agronomic improvements are in place new variety introduction is expected to have more potential for sucshycess than at the present time Some of the on-farm trials in the WASAT may need to be underjgken by agencies whose principal activity is not new variety development
The on-farm testing can be either the final step in the research proshycess of the NARC IARC or other research institution or the fi t step in the Extension Service before demonstration trials or other disL mination activities The institutional location should depend upon whether the prishymary product is feedback on technology improvement to experiment station researchers or feedforward of technologies to be disseminated by the Extension Service Since the process of feedback to researchers is conshysidered to be the most important objective of on-farm testing in the early stages of agricultural technology development in the WASAT our institushytional preference for the location of these trials is with the national agricultural research centers (NARCs) rather than the national extension service The scientists in the on-farm trials will know how to convince the scientists on the experiment station of the validity of their results Some of them may even fulfill algual role working on both the experiment station and the on-farm trials As more technology is validated in the on-farm trials and can move on to the Extension Service the returns to investments in the institutional ties between the NARCs and the Extension Service will be increased
28
FOOTNOTES
This type of infrmation flow is customarily referred to as feedback
Farming Systems and other research programs also attempt to provideinformation on new technologies to farmers and extension agents Anyagricultural research program ult imately needs to have an impact on the well-being of farmers in order to survive Since the economic imporshytance of this directional flow of information to farmers is obvious we consider it to be more importlant to stress here the importance of the feedback to researchers so that they are more effective in doing their job ie producing new technologies
2 Dillon (1976 pp 6-7) contrasts philosophic differences of scientific
investigation into two approaches Reduc t ionism implied reducingphenomena to their more basic (and hopefully independent) parts analyzshying these parts as independent entities to explain their behavior and then aggregating these explanations as an explanation of the phenomenon under study Reductionism abetted and fostered the proliferation of specialized deafness and tunnel vision in form of independentthe scienshytific disciplines
Since the fifties reductionism has been increasingly seen as an inadequate basis for science to either understand or to manipulate and control its environment An alternative approach is the systems or holistic approach This is a multi-disciplinary approach in which explanation then proceeds in terms of the role or function of the part in the Larger system(s)
Clearly heshe will be exposed to all the other types of constraints but disciplinary blinders often exist especially for those involved in their own research programs
4 A recent international agricultural research center meeting for the planniig of on-farm trials in Africa concluded that the initial descripshytion and diagnostic activity of the FSR should be rapidly implemented so that a crop season for experimentation is not lost (unpublished summaryof meeting notes ILRAD Oct 1984) Diagnosticsurvey activities and farm-level experimentation can continue simultaneously In fact the farm-level experimentation will require additional diagnosticsurvey activities to evaluate the Economic potential of the new technology
The diagnostic surveys of economists have not been nearly as useful for a comprehensive understanding of the farming and household systems as those of the anthropologists Howev-r the utility of the economist on multi-disciplinary teams to undertake and evaluate on-farm trials has been repeatedly demonstrated and is now widely if not universally acshycepted (Simmonds 1984 pp 24 71-75 125) The other social scienshytists have not yet demonstrated their capacity to work on these types of teams They appear to be in the position of defining their role a position similar to that of the economists about a decade earlier
29
6 Generally soil fertility is higher on the experiment station and the
incidence of anddiseases insects is greater than on the surrounding farms due to the repeated intensive cultivation of the same crops Howshyever on the experiment station the high levels of non-treatment inputs such as agricultural chemicals can reduce the levels of insects disshyeases and weeds to levels even lower than on the farmers fields For farmers these levels of chemical control are often not profitable
Occasionally the impact of one or two components will be estimated as with fertilization and tied ridges (a water-conservation technique) alone and in combination in the Burkina Faso FSU program
8 If the weeding is not done opportunely there can often be a yield
decline Moreover all farms in a given region will be performing these types of operations at approximately the same time Hence it will be very difficult for farmers to hire temporary labor away from their famshyily operations So the implicit value or productivity of the family labor becomes very high in these particular tasks at certain critical times
9 A more comprehensive agricultural policy analysis would include the macro effect of new technology introduction on prices as is done in agriculture sector models But because so many other structural changes are occurring at the same time this price effect is not considered to be very important at least in the initial stages of technology development
10 Those advocating these types of planting density date or other culshy
tural system change generally are expecting yield increases of only 10 to 20 This type of yield increase is very difficult for the farmer to see and could easily disappear as on-farm trials change from researcher to farmer management New agronomic system changes are expected to take time for farmers to master if a series of component part changes are implied andor timeliness of the relevant operations is also important Hence the yield differences of these minimal changes even if they truly exist will often disappear in the learning-by-doing effect
11 Once farmers are utilizing moderate purchased input levels it will be
very important to systematically evaluate the im-pact of these marginal changes especially new varieties and more intensive cropping systems
12 By removing all input subsidies and other price distortions or intervenshy
tions governments and international agencies can calculate the real resource cost of various alternative policies and ascertain their comshyparative advantage in international production This analysis assumes that the re are no differences between private and public benefits or between private and social costs Hence there are no externalities in the system
30
Removing these price and cost distortions will facilitate economic calculations and in the long run welfare gains are expected In the short run the elimination of input subsidies is expected to sharply slow down the agricultural developmenc process and to put upward presshysure on agricultural product prices and the demand for agricultural import substitutes Developed country exporters of agricultural proshyducts would be the principal beneficiaries of higher agricultural import levels in the developing countries
13 In the river valleys and irrigated regions human health constraints may be the principal factor limiting agricultural development River blindshyness has been a serious problem in many of the Burkina Faso river valshyleys An erradiation program has now at least temporarily eliminated this problem In the irrigation projects the widespread incidence of bilharzia substantially reduces labor productivity
14 By successful we mean passing the three evaluation criteria recommended
in Figure 5 Clearly agricultural scientists will also be interested in those technologies being passed on to the Extension Service for diffusion We are stressing here their interest in feedback in order to resolve those problems in their technologies which came to their attenshytion because of the results of the on-farm trials
15 We would expect that those agencies principally concerned with varietal
development would emphasize varietal testing in their on-farm trials The on-farm trials are important activities for institutions primarily concerned with breeding Nevertheless a third party such as a univershysity may be necessary in order to carry out the farm trials without preconceived notions which would emphasize certain varieties or other types of technology
16 The differences are so great between the experiment station and the
farm-level definitions of constraints and relevant research problems that one of the field agronomists from this project even proposed that all agricultural scientists working on the experiment stations in the WASAT should have some involvement with on-farm trials
CHAPTER IV
PRODUCTION CONSTRAINTS OF THE WASAT FARMING SYSTEMS
The WASAT is not as well endowed with a climate or soil resource base as most of the populated areas of the world This chapter elaborates on the major physical and resource endowment constraints of the WASAT and describes cropping patterns farmers goals and objectives and modern input use
Climate
The WASAT region is a transition zone betwien the northern desert and the humid tropics of the south There are three distinct seasons warm and dry from November to March hot and dry during March through May and hot and wet from May to October Harmattan conditions (hot dry dustshyladen winds) exist during the November to March period
Rainfall in the May to October agricultural season over the entire WASAT ranges from 200 mm in the north to 1300 mm in the south with potenshytial evapotranspiration ranging between 2200 mm in the north to 1600 mm in the south (Nicou and Charreau 1985) Since the mid-sixties annual rainshyfall has averaged 100 to 150 mm below the long-term average within each isohyet (Dancette 1977) Thus the isohyet levels delineating the climatic zones in Figure 1 would be at lower levels if more recent rainfall data were used
Rainfall is extremely variable over time and over space Nicholson (1982) states that in normal rainfall years 40 to 50 of individual weather stations experience below-normal rainfall Rainfall vaiiabiltty at individual stations ranges from 15 of the long-term average in the south to 50 in the north (Nicholson 1982) Also the number of below-normal years tend to exceed the number of wet years The long-term average rainshyfall is inflated by a few extremely wet years (Nicholson 1982) The area also has a long history of intermittent droughts and wet spells
Soil Fertility and Water Retention
Soils in the WASAT are predominantly sandy red alfisols low in organic matter and exchangeable cations with a soil texture high in sand (60-95) anO low in silt and clay content (Matlon 1985 Nicou and Charreau 1985) The soils tend to be deficient in phosphorous and nitroshygen Long fallow periods can restore soil fertility but phosphorous and nitrogen deficiency symptoms have been observed shortly after the land is put into cultivation (IFDC 1985) The phosphorous sorption capacity of WASAT soils vary widely but is generally low decreasing the agronomiceffectiveness of phosphate fertilizers (IFDC 1985) Nitrogen can be quickly exhausted in these fragile poorly buffered soils (IFDC 1985) The soils contain only weak aggregates and in many regions the soil surface
32
dries after a rain and forms a crust which restrict water infiltration and aeration (Kowal and Kassam 1978) These soil properties combined with high intensity rainfall lead to water retention and erosion problems In the dry season the soils harden making pre-plant cultivation difficult and almost impossible by traditional methods until there is a major rain (Kowal and Kassam 1978)
The quality of the land in terms of fertility and organic matter conshytent varies greatly in tarmers fields Land quality and soil water retenshytion are highly correlated with topography and distance from the compound area around the living quarters The quality and water retention ability of the soil deteriorates as one moves farther up the toposequence and away from the compound area thus requiring different cropping and management strategies by the farmer (Stoop et al 1982)
Although more productive vertisols and hydromorphic soils are found along river valleys the presence of Onchoceriasis (river blindness) in many of the river valleys has made them uninhabitable in the past
Labor Availability
Labor shortages exist in the critical planting and weeding periods (FSUSAFGRAD 1983) Planting of millet and sorghum begins with the first significant rains in May or June This is followed by rice groundnut and maize planting in combination with the sorghum and millet first weeding activities Depending on the level and distribution of rainfall fields may require resowing transplanting andor thinning Usually a second and at times a third weeding will follow Most of the plantingfirst weeding period occurs over a six-week time period with the household supshyplying the labor
When farmers were asked why they did not hire more labor for first weeding their reply was Because there is no one to hire then everyone is busy with their own weeding (FSUSAFCRAD 1983) Households do not genershyally hire labor from other households because cash and food reserves at this time of year are at their lowest and not sufficient to pay laborers a wage rate (or its equiyalent in food) equal to the opportunity cost of working their own land Also few laborers are in the labor market at this time because households have control of their family labor and utilize it for their own production needs (Kowal amp Kassam 1978)
Cropping Patterns
Cereal production is the dominant agricultural activity in the WASAT (Kowal and Kassam 1978) Regional cropping patterns in the WASAT differ-shythe most notable difference being the increasing dominance of millet over sorghum maize and root crops as soil fertility and rainfall decrease from south to north About 80 of the cropped area in the WASAT is intershycropped--cerealcereal and cereallegume are the most common (Fussell and Serafini 1985 Sawadogo et al 1985) Cowpeas are usually intercropped
33
with millet or sorghum at low densities of 1000 to 8000 plants per hectare The main cash crops in the south include cotton groundnuts and bambara nuts Small amounts of rice are grown in the bottom lands and irrigated areas
At the farm level land quality the water retention ability of the soil and labor availability are the dominant factors in farmers cropping decisions (Lang et al 1983) The staple crops of maize sorghum and millet receive the highest priority of land and labor resources Drought tolerance of the crops are matched with soil fertility and toposequence Maize which is less tolerant to drought and low soil fertility than either sorghum or millet is planted near the villagle compound on the more-fertile compound field This field ranging in size from 1 to 2 ha is used as a dump for night soil animal manure stubble and other organic material Sorghum is planted on the lower areas where there is slightly more water accumulation and where the soils are more fertile than the poorer soils further up the toposequence (Stoop et al 1982) The more abundant but poorer land is planted to millet which has the most tolerance to drought and low soil fertility Farmers say that in the worst rainfall years some millet can always be harvested
Millet and sorghum can be found growing in the next higher soil fershytility gradient than is dictated by their drought tolerance ability but maize and sorghum are rarely grown on a lower soil fertility gradient Farmers say that white sorghum is preferred because it stores twice as long as millet however more sorghum is not sown because of limited good qualshyity land and because sorghum is more vulnerable to parasites such as striga Maize and sorghum planting is thus constrained by the availability of high quality land whereas the millet area is constrained by the labor supply in the plantingfirst weeding period
In the old settlement areas cereal yields are declining in response to lower soil fertility caused by the decrease in the fallow period and lower average rainfall over the last decade (Lang et al 1984) As the soil fertility declines sorghum is being replaced by millet which yields better on the poorer soils Farmers in the village of Nedogo say that much more sorghum was planted in the village when they were young than is planted now (Ames 1986)
Farmer Goals and Objectives
Norman (1982) states that the most important differences among farming systems come from the constraints peculiar to the region and not from difshyferences in farmer aspirations (which include higher incomes effort reducshytion and risk avoidance) Farmers in older settlement areas have conshystraints and endowments which differ from those of farmers in frontier villages Farmers in the older settlement areas of Burkina where access to land is limited and soil fertility low indicated uniformly that their only goal was subsistence (FSUSAFGRAD 1983) This means harvesting enough sorghum and millet in November to feed their families until the beginning
34
of the August maize harvest that provides food during the hungry period-shythe period between ending cereal stocks and the new harvest (FSUSAFGRAD 1983) When asked to specify other goals and objectives the first priorshyity was the payment of a head tax and if resources remained meetingurgent needs which were listed as medical Other priorities were to reward the family with clothes for their work during the cropping season and to greet their in-laws or arrange marriages (FSUSAFGTAD 1983)
On the frontier where access to fallow land is notl limited half of the farmers gave subsistence oriented responses that were similar to the responses given in the older settlement areas However half of the farmshyers responded that We were once concerned only with survival but now we also think of accumulating wealth When asked What is wealth they replied cattle (FSUSAFGRAD 1983)
The survey results indicated that although farmers in the WASAT in general are subsistence oriented the goals and objectives of farmers difshyfer given different constraints This is evidenced by the total subsisshytence orientation of the sample of farmers in the old settlement villages versus the orientation of those farmers in the frontier village who indishycated wealth accumulation as one of their main goals Higher soil fertilshyity and access to land at the frontier has permitted farmers to look beyond subsistence goals This appears to demonstrate that if through technologshyical introduction some of the constraints to increasing yield in the WASAT can be alleviated the aspirations of farmers will allow technology adopshytion to occur (at some level of profit effort and risk)
Modern Input Use
Except for tuie higher rainfall regions of the Sudano-Guinean region and some river valleys credit and modern inputs such as fertilizer pestishycides herbicides and improved varieties are not widely used in the WASAT Even in these regions of higher rainfall purchased input utilization is concentrated on the export crops cotton and groundnuts FAO fertilizer statistics indicate that NPK use in eight Sahelian countries averaged less than 3 kgha as compared to 73 kgha in Asia (Matlon 1985) Less than 15 of farmers use animal traction in the WASAT (Matlon and Spencer 1985) Animal traction is used for shallow land preparation plowing and shallow weeding but utilization rates are low and farmers seldom are equipped to do more than one mechanized operation (Jaeger 1985)
Neither input nor product marketing infrastructure nor a research and extension service similar to that developed for cash crops in the WASAT pre-independence era (pre-1960) was ever developed for food crops In the Colonial period food requirements were met by the subsistence-oriented agricultural system There was little export demand for food crops such as sorghum and millet (World Bank 1985) Since the late 1960s however rapid population growth and lower food crop yields due to lower rainfall levels and declining soil fertility have substantially increased food crop
35
demand to the point where food security is not assured in most regions of the WASAT Expanding cereal imports have accompanied this trend
Even with the population pressure and increased food demand since independence an input and product marketing infrastructure for food crops has not developed Poor fertility 3oils erratic rainfall distribution and low soil water retention have led to highly variable between-year yield responses to many land-substituting inputs For example the response of fertilizer is highly dependent upon the availability of sufficient water at several critical periods Thus fertilizer utilization can be very risky Similarly iroved varieties have not dcne well under traditional manageshyment conditions (Matlon 1985)
Labor-saving animal traction technology is not widely used in the WASAT in spite of potentially high ratc of return Present internal rates of return of 10 in old settlement areas (Nedogo) and 20 to 30 at the frontier (Diapangou) have been estimated but higher rates of return could be achieved with higher utilization rates principally through expansion of the number of mechanized agricultural operations (Jaeger 1985) Most animal traction farms observed in Burkina Faso mechanized either the land preparation or the cultivation operations but not both Problems of obtaining high utilization rates stein from small size farms inapproprishyate andor incomplete set of implements poor animal health and nucrition and poor management (Jaeger and Sanders 1985) Higher utilization rates and the full benefit of mechanization are not obtained by first-time animal traction users because learning curves can be as long as five years (Jaeger and Sanders 1985) Few animal traction extension programs exist which train farmers and draft animals and thus facilitate animal traction usage
In summary low soil fertility and low soil water retention low variable and unpredictable rainfall in combination with a high evapotransshypiration rate labor shortages in the critical planting and weeding periods and the limited access to land in old settlement areas are the major physical and resource endowment constraints to increased cereal yields in most of the WASAT (Matlon 1985 Nagy et al 1985 Lang et al 1984) The physical environment makes new technology adoption in the WASAT risky The national research institutions extension and input and product marketing infrastructures to support new technology adoption and dissemination are at a low level Thus farming systems on the frontier continue to be bush-fallow systems that rely on available land and family labor inputs with little utilization of purchased inputs Farming systems in the older settled area have been shifting to more millet production and yields have declined and stabilized at low levels
Despite the current situation in the WASAT recent research findings suggest that a Malthusian perspective can be iverted Several on-farm evaluated technologies have been shown to be both agronomically and economshyically feasible in increasing cereal production and others have promise for the future A review of the proposed technologies and farm management practices for the WASAT is the subject of the next chapter
36
Footnotes
Whole farm modeling results indicate opportunity costs of labor in the
last two weeks of the plantingfirst weeding period to be 365 and 181 FGFAhr respectively for manual tillage farmers which is in contrast to the wage rate of 30 to 50 FCFAhr (Roth et al 1986)
CHAPTER V
TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT TO INCREASE CEREAL PRODUCTION IN THE WASAT
Introduction
This chapter reviews the technologies and farm management techniques that have been proposed for alleviating the production constraints in the WASAT This review uses agronomic and socio-economic data and information frGn the Purdue FSU piogram supplemented by other research from the area The FSU program conducted research in three climatic zones with village research sites in the southern portion of the Sahelo-Sudanian zone in the Sudanian zone and in the northern portion of the Sudano-Guinean climatic zone (Figure 2) Thus FSU findings and the review of most of the techshynolog0ies and recommendations reflect this orientation
As each technology is discussed it is evaluated as to the feasibility of its utilization by farmers within the short run (0 to 5 years) the intermediate run (5 to 15 years) and the long run The criteria used in the evaluation attempt to follow the strategy used by farmers in their adoption process (see Figure 5 in Chapter III and Table 1 in this chapter)
Socio-economic research suggests that farmers do not necessarily adopt technologies as a package but rather adopt single technologies or clusters of technologies en route to total package adoption (Byerlee and Hesse de Polanco 1986 Mann 1978) This is in spite of the fact that the largest impact on yields comes about when various methods (technologies) are used in combinition or as a package The farmers strategy seems to be to adopt the technologies of the package sequentially based on availability technical viability in the field economic profitability and risk conshysiderations and the resource endowment fit of the technology (ie labor and land constraints) within the farming system The technologies within the package that best exhibit the above attributes will be selected first by the farmer Other technologies will be added only after the farmer has had positive experience with the already adopted technologies and when the above attribute requirements are again met Thus while farmers can be presented with a package of technologies there seems to be an agronomically and economically logical sequence by which technological adoption will occur Information on the likely adoption pattern sequence of proposed technologies is important for focusing research extension and government programs
In this chapter available agronomic technical and socio-economic research findings are used to review and sequence the proposed technologies and farm management practices for the WASAT For example research findings from on-station and on-farm research trials are used to assess technical viablity in the field Economic budget analysis and benefit-cost
38
Table 1 Present technical and economic feasibility and time frame of proposed technologies and farm management practices for the WASAT
Technologies Present Ayronomic and Technical Feasibility Present and Farm Mgmt On-Station On-Farm Economic
Practices Research Research Feasibility Comments
Available technologies for the short run
Tied ridging (manual) +++ Very labor intensive Diguettesdikes 3 Require materials (ie rocks) Complex fertilizer ++ Risk of losing cash outlayAnimal traction 3 ++ Preconditions (see text) Mechanical ridge tier +++ ++ Requires animal traction
Potential technologies for the intermediate run Rock phosphate + - Solubility amp application problems Improved varieties ++ + - Requires upgrading of physical
environment
Potential technologies for the long run Manurecomposting +++ ++ Small and finite supply Mulch +++ ++ Small and finite supply Plowinggreen manuring ++ ++ - Poor draft animal health
Herbicides ++ ++ - Further research requiredBiol nitrogen fixation + - Further research requir Crop associations - intensification ++ + - Requires upgrading of physical - alley cropping ++ + - environment and improved
varieties Labor and management
intensive
++ High degree of feasibility--research supports a very good agronomic response or is technically very
feasible ++ Feasible--good agronomic response or technically feasible + Limited feasibility--agronomic results often inconsistent - Not feasible--little evidence to support a good agronomic response or technical feasibility
HaHighly profitable at present
= Profitable at present = Not always profitable at pres(ent
- NHot economically feasible at present
3 Not researched at the on-station level
4 Can be feasible for sole cropping but problems with mixture of broad and slender leaf plants in crop associations
39
ratios are used to determine economic profitability Research irial results and the incidence of cash outlay loss are used to assess risk Whole farm modeling and labor data analysis is used to indicate the fit of the technolshyogy within the farming systems Farmers views and comments are also incorporated
Once the technologies and farm management practices are reviewed and sequenced for either the short intermediate or long run the discussion in this chapter turns to identifying available technologies--first for the present cereal-based farming systems and second for a future more intenshysified farming system The technologies available for use in the present farming systems are then further sequenced on a recommendation domain basis
Proposed Technologies for the WASAT
The research that has been carried out in the WASAT aimed at overcomshying climatological and physical constraints and labor endowment shortages is discussed under the hicadings 1) soil fertilitywater retention techshynologies 2) labor-saving technologies 3) improved varietal research and 4) crop associations Table 1 presents a summary of the technical and ecoshynomic feasibility evaluation and a time frame for the availability of the proposed technologies and farm management practices
1) Soil FertilityWater Retention Technologies
Tied Ridges Tied ridging technology was introduced in the 1950s in West Africa (Dagg and Macartney 1968) On-station and on-farm research has shown that tied ridges significantly increase yields (Nicou and Charreau 1985 Dugue 1985 Rodriguez 1982 Ohm et al 1985a and 1985b) (see Photograph 5 page 41) FSU on farm researcher-managed (TR constructed both at and one month after planting) and farmer-managed trials (TR conshystructed 4-6 weeks after planting) have shown significant yield increases and economic returns to the additional labor required for TR on maize sorghum (Table 2 column 2) and millet (FSU 1983 Annual Report 1983 Lang et al 1984 and Ohm et al 1985a and 1985b) Manual tying of ridges is very labor intensive The manual tying of ridges constructed with animal traction requires at least 40 man hoursha (with very efficient laborers) and on average 75 man hoursha whereas constructing TR completely by hand requires at least 100 hoursha (Ohm et al 1985b) (see Photograph 6 page 41)
PJshy
-no pre-plant soil itillage no fertilization Soil scarification with animal traction~Woman planting millet by traditional manual method
-
Left fertilization right no fertilization foreground droughty area in field shy a typical view in the Central Manual construction of tiec oges in researcher-managed trial - mulch applied to somePlateau plots
D II
A
FSU researcher managed trials near Poedogo Water entrapment in depressions resulting from tied ridgesa No fertilization construction of tied ridges at plantingb No fertilization construction of tied ridges one month after plantingc No fertilization without tied ridges d Fertilization and tied ridges
Ad T7 Z
Farmer-managed plots - Left traditional method no fertilization and no tied ridging right fertilization Farmer-managed trials - Left foreground mulch applied no fertilization nor construciion of tied ridgesand tied ridging Right foreground fertilization and contruction of tied ridges one month after planting Background farmshyers traditionally managed field
43
Construction of tied ridges with mechanical ridge tier FSU researcher managed trial Background maize intershycropped with cowpeas fertilized with construction of tiedridges at planting Foreground maize intercropped with cowshypeas no fertilization nor construction of tied ridges
43 - a
Table 2 Economic analysis of farmer-managed trials of sorghum with fertilizer and tied ridges Nedogo and Diapangou 1983 and 1984
1 Treatments
C TR F TRF Nedogo 1984 Manual Traction
Grain Yield kgha 2 157 416 431 652
Yield Gain Above Control kgha - 259 274 495
Gain in Net Revenue FCFAha 3 - 23828 13275 33607
Returnhr of Additional Labor FCFA4 238 140 172- Farmers Whio Would Have Lost Cash - 0 27 9
1aedogo 1983 Manual Traction Grain Yield kgha 430 484 547 851 Yield Gain Above Control kgha - 54 117 421 Gain in Net Revenue FCFAha - 3510 -2285 17475 Returnhr of Additional Labor FCFA - 35 - 90 Farmers Who Would Have Lost Cash - 0 66 0
Diapangou 1984 Donkey Traction Grain Yield kgha 498 688 849 1133 Yield Gain Above Control kgha - 190 351 635 Gain in Net Revenue FCFAha - 17480 20359 46487 Returnhr of Additional Labor FCFA - 233 214 273 Farmers Who Would Have Lost Cash shy 0 21 0
Diapangou 1983 Donkey Traction Grain Yield kgha 481 522 837 871 Yield Gain Above Control kgha - 71 356 390 Gain in Net Revenue FCFAha - 6532 20819 23947Returnhr of Additional Labor FCFA - 87 219 141 Farmers Who Would Have Lost Cash - 0 16 12
Source Ohm et al 19851) and Lang et al 1984 Similar results were obtained at three other sites in Burkina
1 C = Control (no tied ridges or fertilizer) TR = tied ridges constructed at second weeding F = fertilizer 100 kgha 14-23-15 applied in band 10-15 cm from row at first weeding plus 50 gla urea applied in pockets 10-15 cm from seed pockets at second weeding
2 The standard error and CV (in parentheses) starting with Nedogo 1984 and conshy
tinUing through to Diapangon 1983 are 75 (43) 121 (29) 46 (18) and 43 (22) respectively Net Revenue = yield gaiii x grain price (65 and 92 FCFAkg in 1983 and 1984) minus fertilizer cost (62 and 78 CFAkg for 14-23-15 and 60 and 66 FCFAkg for urea in 1983 and 1984--fertili C prices are subsidized 40 to 50) Includes interest rate charge for six months at rate of 15 1 US dollar = 381 FCFA in 1983 and 436 FCFA in 1984 Net Revenue + additional labor of tied ridging and fertilizer application Manual and donkey traction require 100 and 75 hours of additional laborha for tied ridging respectively Fertilizer application requires 95 additional hoursha
44
Tied ridge construction has the advantage that no cash outlay is reshyquired if family labor is utilized However a survey of technology adoption by farmers in FSU villages indicated that the number of farmers constructing tied ridges and the hectarage of tied ridge construction outshyside the trial plots were small--an average of 032 hectaresfarmer with the largest being 10 hectare (Ohm et a] 1985b) When questioned farmers indicated that thev would like to construct more TR but they did not have sufficient family Iabo I ir ing from an outside labor pool is limited at the time tied ridges mu be coumstructed because the active labor force of all households is fully occupied with work in their own fields Linear programming representative farm models (Table 3 column 2) also indicate that labor availab i i ty const rainos prevent the manual tying of animal traction constructed ridges from beilng ut ilized on the entire farm
Another limitation is that tied ridging does not work well on sandy soils because the ties tend to break down in heavy rain Nevertheless aim estimated 40 of the presently cultivated land in Burkina and 15 in Mali appears to be suitable for tied ridging This represents 12 million hecshytares (Burns 1985) Tied ridges have been shown to be both agronomically and economicaly feasih Ic as a technology applicable at the present time to increase cereal product ion in the WASAT However the labor constraint requires a search for labor- saving technoloies
I)iguettesdikes There are various water conservationerosion methods in addition to tied ridges that are or could be used in the WASAT The construction of diguettes although not as effective in retaining water as tied ridges is a water conservation method that has been investigated Diguettes are barriers 10 to 15 cm high mainly made of rocks and placed on field contour lines 10 to 50 meters apart The barriers are permeable ard slow rainfall runoff to allow for increased infiltration They have imshyproved water retention and signiicantly increased yields in the norther[ (Yatenga) region of Burkina (Wright 1985) This technology has the advarshytage that it can be constructed in off peak labor periods with family labor and is not as labor intensive as tied ridging However rocks (the prinshycipal material) or other material in some regions are not available to conshystruct the diguettes Economic analysis indicates that the returns in the first year alone are greater than the labor bill (at the going wage rate) of constructing the diguettes In Burkina Faso local government agencies have constructed large dikes and barriers to control water flow at the village level Although diguettes and other forms of water retention and control require further research thme large dikes and diguettes are technologies that could be used at present
Complex Themical Fertilizers Under on-station and on-farm conditions significant yield increases for maize sorghum and millet have been obtained using complex mineral fertilizers (Pieri 1985 Ohm et al 1985b FSU Annual Reports) Yield response to fertilizer is however highly variable between sites and years (Spencer 1985) Nevertheless some researchers sugsest that continuous cropping using chemical fertilizers is potentially possible in the WASAT (see Pier 1985 p 77 for a literature review
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
45
Table 3 Whole farm modeling analysis of tied ridging with donkey tracshytion Central Plateau Burkina Faso
Tied-Ridging Technology Traditional Tied with Machine Management Tied by Two One
Variable (donkey) Hand Passes Pass -------------------- hectares---------------------
Total Area Cultivated 55 56 56 55 Maize
Traditional 20 - - -With Tied Ridges 20 20 20
Red Sorghum Traditional 60 - - -With Tied Ridges 60 60 60
White Sorghum Traditional 80 51 With Tied Ridges 29 80 80
Millet Traditional 318 315 315 184 With Tied Ridges - 33 164
Peanuts 76 85 53 43
Total Cereals Production ---------------------- kgs------------------------Per Househol 2103 2436 2651 2737 Per Resident 150 174 189 196
Net Farm Income 3 000s FCFA-------------------Per Household 2153 2462 2535 2622 Per Worker 308 352 362 375
1 Labor times of 75 man hoursha for tying of the ridges by hand 20 man
hoursha to machine tie with two passes and 2 aan hours to machine tie with one pass Yield estimates in kgsha for traditional practices and the technical intervention of tied ridging are as follows maize (1090 to 1730) red sorghum (672 to 940) white sorghum (472 to 660) and milshylet (320 to 415) 1985 fertilizer and grain prices were used
2 Based on 14 residentshousehold Annualized cost of 4400 FCFA for tied-ridging machine subtracted in colshyumns 3 and 4 Based on 7 active workershousehold
46
and references) Decreases in yield and fertilizer efficiency however have been observed after two to five years of continuous cropping where organic matter has not been incorporated into the soil (Pieri 1985)
In Burkina Faso on-farm researcher-managed trials indicate that the response of maize yields to tertilizer on the relatively high fertilitycompound soils was not economically profitable (1982 FSU Annual Report 1983) On-farm farmer-managed trials indicated that fertilizer can be profitable when using fertilizer alone on sorghum (Table 2 column 3) There is however considerable risk for the farmer of losing the cash outshylay when fertilizer is used alone as demonstrated by the percentage of farmers who would have lost cash in Table 2 column 3 Both yield and profitability substantially inicrease however when tied ridges and fertilshyizer are used in combination as indicated in Table 2 column 4 Also as shown in column 4 the risk of losing the cash outlay from the purchase of fertilize substantially decreases when fertilizer and TR are used in comshybination Fertilizer in combination with TR for millet on millet land has also been shown to be profitable with only a modera e risk of farmers losshying the fertilizer cash outlay (Ohm et al 1985a)
A survey of four FSU villages in Burkina indicated a range of fertilshyizer use )n cereals from zero farmers in the sample of the northern village of Bangasse to 33 of the farmers in the southern village sample from Poedogo which has better land and higher rainfall In the more northern region fertilizer use is riskier due to lower and more erratic rainfall Average hectarage fertilized in the villages that used fertil zer ranged from 034 ha at Nedogo to 3 ha at Poedogo (Ohm et al 1985b) Although the use rate per hectare was not established field staff indicated it was substantially lower than the 100 kga of 14-23-15 fertilizer applied to most of the FSU trials in the villages
The evidence to date on fertilizer use in the WASAT suggests that comshyplex fertilizers are a technolegy that can be used at present but yields are highly variable and the incidence of fertilizer cash outlay loss by farmers is high unless combined with a water retention technique such as TR The risk of losing cash decreases in the higher soil fertility and higher rainfall areas Empirical evidence also suggests that fertilizer use or water retention techniques such as TR when used alone can be economshyically feasible but that when used together the profitability substanshytially increases Moreover the number of farmers losing cash decreases subFstantially as compared with the fertilizer only strategy
Indigenous Rock Phosphate The benefits of using indig ous rock phosphate deposits in the WASAT are potentially appealling in terms of logistcs transportation cost advantages and foreign exchange savings Workable deposits occur in Senegal Mali Niger Togo Benin Nigeria and Burkina Faso On-station and on-farm trials have however found the rock phosphate to have solubility problems (IFDC 1985 Pieri 1985) The comshybination of the low P release in a water-soluble form that is readily available for use by plants aid the low I-sorption capacity of the WASAT soils have resulted in poor agronomic performance from rock phosphate applications There is little or no potential for direct application of WASAT rock phosphate with the possible exception of the Mali (Tilemsi) and Niger (Tahoual) deposits (IFDC 1985)
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Two methods are used to increase the agronomic effectiveness of rock phosphate One method is to highly granulate the rock and the other method is acidulation Even when highly granulated the agronomic effrectiveness is low and several years of consecutive applications are required before significant yield increases are observed (IFDC 1985 FSU Annual Reports) After several years of application benefit-cnst ratios were still lower than other sources of phosphorous (IFDC 1985)
Four years of FSU on-farm farmer-managed trials in Burkina Faso using highly granulated Burkina rock phosphate (100 kgha rock phosphate with 50 kgha urea applied each year on the same plots) also indicated low benefitshycost ratios Benefit-cost ratios of less than one with a 50 subsidized rock phosphate price were obtained (Unpublished FSU data) In the same experiment benefit-cost ratios of 13 were obtained from a rock phosphate tied ridging treatment but the benefit-cost ratio decreased to 069 when unsubsidized prices were used FSU cooperator farmers did not like using the rock phosphate due to its poor agronomic performance and application problems due to its highly granulated form
IFDC has developed two processes for the partial acidulation of rock phosphate Acidulation with sulfuric or phosphoric acid converts the calshycium phosphate into a more soluble form Research on the agronomic effecshytiveness of partially acidulated rock phosphate in the WASAT has given conshyflicting results (Batiano et al 1985) Inconsistent results were obtained by FSU with 50 acidulated Burkina rock phosphate in a one year on-farm researcher-managed trial with sorghum and millet (Ohm et al 1985a) The partially acidulated rock phosphate is also highly granulated giving rise to farmer application problems
Few economic studies of acidulated rock phosphate are available for the WASAT When compared with single superphosphate the relative economic performance of acidulated rock phosphate on millet in Niger is generally lower but is not consistent across sites or years (IFDC 1985)
To be agronomically and economically feasible the solubility problems of rock phosphate will have to be overcome The present effectiveness of acidulation requires further on-farm testing Once rock phosphate became agronomically and economically feasible fertilizer plants and distribution networks would require several years to develop A source of sulfuric or phosphoric acid at economically feasible prices is also required (Pieri 1985) Thus rock phosphate appears to be a technology most appropriate in the intermediate run after the technical problems of solubility and applishycation are resolved economically at the farm level
Animal Manure and Compost Manure and compost are already being used effectively on fields near the compound although application and composting techniques could be more efficient (Pieri 1985 Table 11) The principal constraint to the increased use of manuring and composting is their finite supply Few organic waste materials are left once the household and animal feed requirements are met Manure availability will increase only when animals are penned to make collection possible However cattle are grazed on fallow land away from the living quarters and the labor involved in conshyfined rearing of animals is too great Cattle are also entrusted to herdshyers because of feed shortages close to the village As fallow land
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declines in the old settlement areas it will be increasingly difficult to support cattle near the village and in the area in general
While animal manure and composting are agronomically and economically feasible for use around the compound area at present they do not representfarm management practices that will substantially increase cereal producshytion in the WASAT in the short and intermediate run because of their finite supply Their potential will only be realized in the long run when the farming system evolves from the dominant cereal-based system to a more intensive cereal-foragecash crop system that is able to support more liveshystock near the village
Mulch Crop residue mulch can reduce rainfall runoff and increase water infiltration but sorghum amid millet stalks in raw or compost form mayadd little to soil fertility (Pieri 1985 p 91) As with manure the principal limiting factor of mulch is its finite supply--especially in the northern half of the WASAT The demand for its uses as animal feed fuel and construction materia] leaves most fields bare by planting time and even when it is not all used the prevalent custom is to burn it Moreover crop residues (3 to 5 Tha) are not sufficient by themselvEs to increase soil fertility and writer retention capacity appreciably In addition applications of mulch (10 Tha) can give rise to nitrogen deficiency which can only be overcome by composting or the addition of nitrogen (Pieri 1985)
Plowinggreen manuring Significant yield increases from on-station and n-farm research have been observed from deep ploughing and tillagepractices which change the structure of the soil allowing better root establishment and improved water infiltration and storage (Nicou and Charreau 1985 I)ugue 1985) Most tillage in the WASAT is done by shalshylow manual cultivation (85 of farmers) or by shallow animal traction cultivation Little pre-plant ploughing or tillage is done because of the need to plant soon after a rain (within 2 to 3 days) The soil is genershyally too hard and the animals too weak at this time of year for effective ploughing to take place before a major rain
Green manuring can also increase the fertility of the soil and add to its water retention capacity (Pieri 1985) However this practice also requires deep ploughing to incorporate the plants into the soil To be effective pre-plant and deep ploughing and green manure incorporation all require substantial draft power which can only be given by healthy well fed double ox teams This type of draft power will be available only in the long run when the farming systems can support high level-maintenance of the draft animals
2) Labor Saving Technologies
Animal Traction An estimated fifteen percent of farms in the WASAT use animal traction--mainly for transport shallow weeding or shallow land-preparation plowing (Matlon 1985) (see Photograph 2 page 40) Farmshyers in general use only one mechanized operation rather than using animal traction for all the agricultural activities of soil preparation plantingand weeding (Jaeger 1985) To date animal traction usage in the WASAT can be characterized as iand using (extensive) Some studies have reported
49
significant farm area expansion from animal traction usage Animal tracshytion can perform weeding 6 to 7 times faster than manual weeding (Jaeger and Sanders 1985) Increased yield effects have been reported in the literature (mainly from ploughing) but the yield effects are generally small (Binswanger 1978)
In spite of low animal traction adoption in the WASAT at present it is a technology that is feasible for use in the short run Animal traction can be made more economically attractive to farmers Present internal rates of return can be doubled and tripled by higher utilization rates (Jaeger 1985) Higher utilization rates can be achieved by increasing the number of mechanized operations In the past many animal traction proshygrams have failed in the WASAT because utilization rates were not suffishyciently high Returns to first time users of animal traction in the first years of operation are generally low because learning curves can be as long as five years and is a deterrent to first time users (Jaeger and Sanders 1985) First time users can obtain the full benefit of nechanizatior quicker through farmer and animal extension training and an improved market for trained draft animals
Mechanical Ridge Tier To respond to the labor constraint in conshystructing tied ridges the IITASAFGRAD Agronomy Program designed a protoshytype mechanical ridge tier (MRT) (Figure 6) for animal traction (Wright and Rodriguez 1985) (see Photographs 7 and 9 pages 41 42) With FSU and IITA SAFGRAD collaboration ihe MRT was field tested as part of Burkinas 1985 national farming systems program (Nagy et al 1986a) Yield levels compare favorably between ridges constructed with animal traction and tied manually and those ridges made with the MRT When the two pass method is used (first ridging and then using the MRT) the MRT substantially reduces the labor requirements from an average 75 man hoursha for the manual tyingof animal traction ridges to 20 man hoursha The MRT operation requires only 2 to 3 additional hours above ridging alone when ridging and tying with the MRT are done simultaneously (one pass) Donkeys must be strong and healthy for the one pass method Oxen which are mainly available on the frontier clearly have an advantage and can easily do both operations simultaneously
Linear programming representative farm models indicate that while available labor constrains the tying of ridges manually to 11 ha (Table 3 column 2) the MRT can tie 32 ha when using the one-pass method (Table 3 column 4) and is highly profitable The profitability is further increased with the addition of fertilizer (Table 4) although hectarage under tied ridges decreases to 09 for manual tying and to 30 with the MRT because labor is required for fertilizer application Budget analysis also indishycates the profitability of the MRT urder vaiious prices and goodbad year weather scenarios (Nagy et al 1986a)
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10
9
3 Latch lever 8 30 cm ridger that allows soil to flow over the top
4 Rubber band (inner tube strip) 9 Handles of houe Manga (FAQ donkey weecer) 5 Latch adjuster (for correct angle and to 10 Bicycle cable to brake lever
compensate for wear in bearings shovels and latch)
Figure 6 The ITASAFGRAD mechanical ridge tier (donkey version)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
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Table 4 Whole farm modeling analysis of a tied ridging-fertilization technology combination with donkey traction Central Plateau Burkina Faso
Tied-Ridging Technology Traditional Tied with Machine Management Tied by Two One
Variable (donkey) Hand Passes Pass ------------------- hectares---------------------
Total Area Cultivated 55 56 57 56 Maize
Traditional 20 With Tied Ridges 20 15 15
Red Sorghum Traditional 60 With Tied Ridges 60 68 60
White Sorghum Traditional 80 70 With Tied Ridges 10 80 95
Millet Traditional 318 315 318 188 With Tied Ridges 05 127
Peanuts 76 86 79 71
Total Cereals Production -------------------- kgs Per Househol 2103 2604 2970 3354 Per Resident 10 186 212 240
Net Farm Income3 000s FCFA-------------------Per Household 2153 2532 2732 2964 Per Worker 308 362 390 423
ource Nagy et al 1985 Based un application of 100 kgha 14-23-15 fertilizer at planting and 50 kgha urea four weeks after planting (20 man hoursha labor requirement for each application) Labor times of 75 man hoursha for tying of the ridges by hand 20 man hoursha to machine tie with two passes and 2 man hoursha to machine tie in one pass Yield estimates in kgsha for trashyditional practices and the technological interventions of fertilization and tied ridges in combination are as follows maize - not fertilized (1090 to 1730) red sorghum (672 to 1236) white sorghum (472 to 913) and millet (320 to 660) 1985 fertilizer and grain prices were used Based on 14 residentshousehold
4 Annualized cost of 4400 FCFA for machine subtracted in columns 3 and 4 Based on 7 active workershousehold
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Information from farmer questionnaires and field staff indicates that the major problem with the MRT is its awkwardness However most farmers were able to operate the MRT fairly efficiently after 15 to 30 minute- in the field Several engineering features require redesigning but the overshyall consensus of the field trials is that the MRT or a machine similar to the MRT can be used at present not only as a labor-saving device but also as a yield-increasing technology
Herbicides Herbicides could be used to decrease the labor constraint in the peak-labor-demand plantingweeding period (Spencer 1985) At present acquiring herbicides in the WASAT is difficult and little research has been done to tailor herbicides to WASAT conditions Both broad leaf and slender leaf plants as well as various trees are grown in association in the same field and these are sensitive to different herbicides
Economic analysis in northern Nigeria (Ogungbile 1980) suggests that weeding either by animal traction or manually is more profitable than herbicides at present Herbicides will find an increasing role in the WASAT only when cropping intensities are increased to the point where they require more intensive weeding (Norman 1982) and when the opportunity cost of labor substantially increases (Ruthenberg 1980)
3) Improved Varietal Pesearch
Few improved varieties of food crops are used by farmers in the WASAT Significant yield increases for varietal improvement from on-station reshysearch have been observed but a large yield gap between on-station and onshyfarm yields exists especially for the staple crops of sorghum and millet Experimental results suggest that the cereal y6 eld gap is less for local than for improved cultivars (Matlon 1985) Yields from FSU on-farm trials in Burkina for improved maize red and white sorghum and cowpeas rarely exceeded the yields of local varieties of the traditional management treatments (FSU Annual Reports)
Analysis by ICRISAT of sorghum and millet cultivars indicate that the on-station selection procedures under a high management environment (high fertility tillage and water management) have resulted in elite cultivars being more management responsive than local varieties but at the same time inferior at lower management levels (Matlon 1985) This suggests that breeding objectives should include screening and selection procedures that can provide cultivars which also exploit moderate management levels and that there is a need to hasten the process of variety evaluation onto onshyfarm trials (Matlon 1985) With the current selection procedures the full impact from varietal development will only be felt in the WASAT when farmers utilize a higher degree of improved management practices--practices such as an MRT-fertilizer combination--which would not take place until the intermediate run Also even if change ocur in the present breeding objectives leading to the development of new varieties able to exploit moderate management levels these vayleties will only be available in the intermediate run (five to ten years)
4) Crop Associations
Experiment station studies of different crop associations have received increased attention in the WASAT over the past 15 years (Fussell
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and Serafini 1985) Significant aggregate biological yields from intensishyfying cereal-cowpea associations have been obtained in research station trials (Fussell and Serafini 1985 Muleba1985) Increased legume densishyties however are normally accompanied by serious insect infestation probshylems requiring pesticide spraying The role that biological nitrogen fixashytion has played in obtaining the increased aggregate yields in cerealshylegume associations in the WASAT is yet to be determined (Fussell and Serifini 1985) Studies have shown however that under WASAT water stress and mineral deficiency conditions some legumes may contribute to nitrogen losses (Pieri 1985)
On-farm researcher-iianaged trials indicate that the most limiting facshytors in the performance of cereal-cowpea association intensification are soil moisture and fertility (Ohm et al 1985a) Under favorable condishytions of moisture and fertility it is profitable to increase cowpeadensity but under less favorable conditions the present practice of the farmers seems to be more dependable and profitable (Ohm et al 1985a)Under improved management (tied ridges fertilizer and pesticides) cowpeadensities somewhat higher than those currently used by farmers appear to be economically viable (Ohm et al 1985a) There are however instances where increased cowpea density has decreased sorghum yields (Matlon 1983)
Socio-economic studies indicate that farmers are primarily concerned with maintaining cereal yields and that modifications in cowpea densities and cultural practices that decrease cereal yield will not be adopted bythe farmer (Sawadogo et al 1985 Diehl and Sipkens 1985 Matlon 1983)Labor data analysis indicates that intensified cereal-cowpea associations substantially increase planting and weeding requirements (Matlon 1983)Depending on the planting date intensification can change the distribution of labor demand and reduce the amount of labor required for final weedingbecause of the cowpeas competition with the weeds Although returns to labor can be greater under intensification farmers do cite lower cereal yields and increased labor demands as the prime reasons for not intensifyshying (Matlon 1983)
Limited research has been carried out on cropping associations involvshying trees in the WASAT Alley cropping--food crops grown in the alleyformed by rows of leguminous shrubs or trees--could form one basis for changing traditional shifting cultivation practices (Kang et al 1984)Alley cropping does possess many potential advantages such as providingmulch firewood biologically fixed nitrogen animal feed and erosion conshytrol However it is very management-intensive and has not been thoroughly researched in the WASAT
Some intensification of cereal and legume crops can take place in the intermediate run once the physical environment is improved but significant crop intensification alley cropping and biological nitrogen fixation would contribute their greatest potential in the long run after farmers first increase their cereal production
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Sequencing of Technologies and Farm Management Practices in the WASAT
With falling cereal yields and the decline of the bush-fallow system in high density population areas the first necessity is to develop new technology systems to increase cereal yields Based upon the information of the proposed technologies as to their present agronomic technical and economic feasibility (Table 1) the overall sequential pattern of technoshylogical adoption would be to use the technologies available in the short run to alleviate the soil fertilitvwater retention constraints ie fertilizer tied ridges diguettes and dikes This would require alleviatshying the labor constraint in the peak-labor-demand period of plantingweedshying through available labor-saving technologies ie animal traction and the MRT
Once the agronomic environment has been improved new variety developshyment will be facilitated The development of these varieties will take time and be available in the intermediate run as compared with the more immediate availability of the tied ridgingfertilization technology combishynation Crop association intensification and diversification and other long run technologies and farm management techniques would then be incorshyporated as they become technically feasible Thus the overall sequential pattern of technology adoption can be dichotomized into a) technologies for the present cereal based farming systems and b) technologies and farm manshyagement practices for the Euture (intensified) farming systems
Technologies for the Present Farming Systems
Production constraints household endowments and household decision making characteristics are heterogeneous in the WASAT leiding to differshyences in the technology requirements and adoption patterns of various households Thus the delineation of recommendation domains can aid the targeting of research extension and government policy and programs This section of the chapter first delineates a set of recommendation domains based on production constraints household characteristics and resource endowments The technologies available in the short run (Table 1) are then sequenced as to the probable adoption pattern within each recommendation domain
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Recommendation Domains Based on Production Constraints
The labor endowment shortage is homogeneous throughout the WASAT but access to land is not Old settlement high-population-density areas exhibit limited to zero fallow rotation due to the limited access to land In general land quality and yield in the older settlement areas is lower than on the frontier which has access to land ind utilizes the traditional bush-fallow system Both intensification and extensification options are available on the frontier whereas only the intensification options are available in the old settlement areas due to the limited access to land Thus technology adoption choices are different in the two areas and a delineation can be made on a population density basis as follows
A Old settlementhigh-population-density areas (ie Central Plateau Burkina Faso)
B Frontierlow-population-density areas
Recommendation domains can also be made on an agroclimatic basis Higher rainfall and relatively higher soil fertility in a general north to south direction within the WASAT vary technology requirements and expected adoption patterns
Recommendation Domains Based on Household Characteristics and Endowments
Farmers have been found to be mainly risk averse (Binswanger 1980 Dillon and Scandizzo 1978) However the risk aversion of farmers within a group may range between high risk aversion and low risk avoidance depending on their initial endowments ie wealth Theoretically the risk that a household will assume is positively correlated with household wealth-shywealth being largely embodied in livestock holdings (mainly cattle) Wealth can also be considered positively correlated with the ability of a household to invest in purchased inputs or absorb larger losses in a poor rainfall season Household characteristics are further delineated into the type cf traction (manual or animal) presently being used This leads to the following recommendation domains Ysed on the household characteristics of risk wealth and type of traction
I A high risk aver3e low wealth manual tillage household--may only adopt low riT technologies and has limited ability to buy purshychased inputs
II A low risk averse high wealth animal traction household--chance of technology adoption higher due to the greater ability to buy purchased inputs
III A low risk averse high wealth manual traction household--chance of technology adoption higher due to greater ability to buy purshychased inputs but has not yet made the transition to animal traction
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Six recommendation domains are presented in Table 5 based upon the household characteristics and population density (access to land) typoloshygies described earlier The recommendation domains are for the 500 to 900 mm annual rainfall regions The potential sequential adoption patterns of the available technologies in the short run for the present cereal based farming systems--complex fertilizers tied ridging animal traction and the MRT--are presented in Table 5 for each recommendation domain The sequencing patterns of the technologies for each recommendation domain are based on the previous discussion of farmers adoption strategies where technologies are adopted singly or in clusters in a logical agronomic and economR sequence This is discussed for each recommendation domain below
IA High Risk Averse Central Plateau Manual Households
With limited access to land limited ability to buy purchased inputs and high risk aversion the opportunities for the household in the first stage of technology adoption are to manually construct tied ridges and use other water retention techniques such as diguettes which use available famshyily labor Linear programming (LP) results indicate that up to 1 hectare could be put in tied ridges manually by the average household which would increase production and income (Table 3 column 1) Also survey results indicated that households used tied ridging at FSU village sites and did tied ridging between 13 and 1 hectare per household (Ohm et al 1985a) Tied ridging is agronomically feasible and economically profitable For this highly risk averse group tied ridging is especially attractive beshycause there is no ris 5of losing a cash outlay with only family labor being utilized for ridging
The next step in the sequence of technology adoption would involve a cash outlay Fertilizer is an option on the land in tied ridges espeshycially in the more southern regions of the WASAT where rainfall is higher Fertilizer use although profitable (Table 2 column 4 Nedogo) would be limited by the small hectarage under tied ridges and the tendency of this group of farmers to avoid risks
Animal traction in combination with the MRT would seem to be the next step in the sequence This combination is not only labor saving but yield increasing as well The addition of the MRT to the machinery complement increases the internal rate of return from 10 for animal traction fWeedshying) alone (Jaeger 1984) to between 30-40 on the Central Plateau LP analysis (Table 3 column 4) indicates that the combination of animal tracshytion and the MRT enables the construction of tied ridges on up to 65 of available cereal land on the average or representative farm and increases total cereals production and income above that of traditional practices and
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Table 5 Recommendation domains and likely sequential adoption patterns of technologies in the WASAT
1 2Household Central Plateau Frontier Characteristics A B
I High risk aversion 1 Manual tied ridges-diguettes 1 Animal traction 3
Low wealth endowment 2 Animal traction-MRT 2 MRT Manual traction 3 Fertilizer 3 Fertilizer
4 Improved varieties 4 Improved varieties
II Low risk aversion 1 Fertilizer 1 MRT High wealth endowment 2 MRT 2 Fertilizer Animal traction 3 Improved varieties 3 Improved varieties
III Low risk aversion 1 Fertilizer 1 Animal traction High wealth endowmont 2 Animal traction 2 MRT Manual traction 3 MRT 3 Fertilizer
4 Improved varieties 4 Improved varieties
1 High density population limited access to land and in general lower quality land than the Frontier
2 Low population density access to land and in generel higher quality land than the Central Plateau
T MRT - the mechanical ridge tier
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17
manual tied ridging With the increase in income households would then be in a better position to purchase fertilizers Internal rates of return for an animal traction-MRT-fertilizer combination range from 25-30 and increase production and income over the animal traction-MRT combination (contrast Table 3 column 4 with Table 4 column 4)
IB High Risk Averse Frontier Manual Households
Households included in this category could follow the manual tied ridgingdiguette regime of Type IA households on maize compound land but may find it as profitable and less labor constraining to maintain the bushshyfallow system for sorghum and millet and use animal traction The present internal rate of return using donkey and ox traction has been estimated to be 31 and 21 respcCtively for a frontier area but the rates of return can be doubled with increased utilization thus making the technology very profshyitable (Jaeger 1984) Next in the sequential adoption pattern would be the use of the MRT The use of the MRT by households may not be used conshycurrently with the introduction of animal traction but the incentive for its utilization would increase as population pressure increased and land became more scarce With internal rates of return of 35-40 for donkey traction and 25-30ior ox traction mechanical ridge tying at the frontier could be expected The third step in the sequence would be the addition of fertilizer
IlA Low Risk Averse Central Plateau Animal Traction Households
Animal traction households exhibiting a lower risk aversion and a greater ability to buy purchased inputs will likely find fertilizer as the best option particularly in the more southern areas of the WASAT with higher rainfall The option of using animal traction to extensify is not available because of the limited access to land and thus the next technolshyogy in the sequential adoption pattern would be to use animal traction to intensify using the MRT
IIB Low Risk Averse Frontier Manual Households
As in IB the extensification option of using animal traction will continue to dominate until increased population pressure limits access to land thus making the intensification option of using the MRT more attracshytive--especially in the northern areas of the WASAT where the rainfall is more limited and Aserratic soil fertility declines fertilizer will become more profitable
IIIA Low Risk Averse Central Plateau Manual Households
Households in this category are expected to choose fertilizer over manual tying of ridges because they have the ability to purchase it and are less averse to taking risk Manual tied ridging could also be an option at first but presented with the opportunity of using an animal traction-MRT combination households would probably choose the latter
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IIIB Low Risk Averse Frontier Manual Tillage Households
Although these households would not be averse to using the land-subshystituting inputs a higher payoff is likely to come from extensification using animal traction in the initial stages of technology introduction As population pressure on the higher quality land increases increased utilshyization of the MRT and fertilizer would be expected
In summary different sequential adoption patterns exist for the difshyferent recommendation domains Adoption is expected to be more rapid by those in the low risk aversehigh wealth categories Given the present levels of research exteksion and government program support some groups such as the high risk averselow wealth old settlement farmers may never adopt any of the technologies
Tied ridging chemical fertilizer and animal traction have all been potentially available to farmers in the WASAT over the last two decades Yet little adoption of these technologies for cereal production has taken place Our hypothesis for this lack of adoption is that while the indivishydual technologiuts may be technically and economically feasible the ecoshynomic impact of individual technologies for the level of risk involved has not been sufficiently high Both farm trials and whole-farm modeling indishycate a substantially higher impact from the simultaneous introduction of all three technologies including the MRT The combined introduction of these technologies alleviates the soil fertility soil water and labor constraints and provides tilarge economic incentive at low levels of risk
The requirement th t the available technologies be introduced simulshytaneously to satisfy farmers risk and profit levels before they will be adopted is in conflict with the empirical finding that farmers adopt innoshyvations sequentially An alternative is to wait until new technologies are developed that satisfy the high profit-low risk criteria so that they will be adopted individually in a sequential manner Another alternative is to use support programs in view of the pressing nature of the problems in the WASAT Support trograms would have to take into consideration the sequenshytial nature of adoption while trying to achieve total package adoption as quickly as possible Animal traction farmers may adopt an MRTfertilizer package simultaneously given high economic incentives and support programs but clearly for manual farmers (the majority) the combined introduction of animal traction the MRT and a fertilizer package all at once in one year is too great
The main thrust of the support program should be to select the first technology within each recommendation donain (Table 5) and provide economic incentives that make the level of risk of the technology acceptable to farmers For example the first technology in the sequence of recommendashytion domains IB and IIB (Table 5) is animal traction Support programs
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would be required to deal with the pre-conditions for animal traction adopshytion (as discussed in Chapters IV and V) and provide adequate economic incentives At a later period when farmers are acquainted with animal traction support programs would deal with the next technology in the sequence for each recommendation domain Following this procedure will reduce the adoption time between technologies within the package The supshyport programs should lead to the adoption of a soil fertility-water retention-labor saving technology package within each recommendation domain Without support programs technology adoption of the present techshynologies available to the WASAT will be very slow with some farmers--in particular the high risk averselow wealth farmers--not adopting any of the technologies
Technologies for Future Farming Systems
The long-run goal of technology introduction for future farming sysshytems is to change the upgraded dominant cereal-based farming system into a more intensified cereal-foragelivestock-cash crop farming systemInformation on the agronomic and economic feasibility of the technologies that may come into play in future farming systems is incomplete making it impossible to sequence the individual technologies as was done for technolshyogies available for present farming systems
Improvements in the present cereal-based farming systems will set the stage for a more intensive crop association and rotation regime Given the yield increase from the fertilizertied ridgesimproved variety combinashytion an estimation has been made that moderate cereal surpluses could be expected in the WASAT in the future with the adoption of these technologies (Savadogo 1986) This would make it possible to shift some production out of cereals and utilize available land labor and capital on more intensive cerealforagecash crop rotations--especially cereallegume rotations that could provide biological nitrogen fixation and reduce the costs of and dependency upon outside sources of nitrogen
Feed availability would increase livestock numbers and improve animal traction not only by better nutrition but also by shifting to more oxen power and away from the lower draft donkey power that dominates low qualityforage farming systems This would mean better crop residue incorporation and green manuring opportunities With increased livestock numbers in proximity to the household more manure would be available Although farmshyers would initially adopt these technologies sequentially the process of adoption would be an iterative one as the more intensive use of one techshynology allows a more intensive use of another ie increased forageallows more cattle to be kept near the compound resulting in more manure which in turn may allow more forage hectarage
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Footnotes
It would be more appropriate to measure risk in terms of a time series
variance (ie over many years) as opposed to a cross sectional varishyance method (ie over many farmers in one year) as used here Three years of data make it difficult to undertake a time series risk analyshysis For a textbook treatment of risk analysis see Anderson et al 1977
2 Tied ridges (TR) are small depressions made between crop rows either by
hand tillage or by a combination of animal traction and hand tillage When constructed by hand depressions 32 cm long x 24 cm wide x 16 cm deep spaced 1-12 meters apart are made between the rows When conshystructed with animal traction the fields are first ridged with a cultishyvator (houe manga) which is equipped with a middle sweep to create a furrow This is then followed by hand tillage to make a 16 cm high ridge perpendicular to the furrow every one to two meters The depresshysions catch and hold water after a rain and increase water infiltration and retention Due to the larger water holding capacity of animal tracshytion tied ridges water retention ability is greater than that of manually tied ridges
One exception should be noted Traditionally maize is grown on the relshyatively higher fertility compound land Three years of on-farm researcher-manageu trials experimenting with maize on non-compound land with TR in general did not show significant yield increases (FSU Annual Report 1983 Lang et al 1984 and Ohm et al 1985a) These expershyiments appear to indicate the need to first utilize organic material or fertilizer to convert the less fertile land into the equivalent of comshypound land before putting the tied ridges on it if maize is to be grown there
4 All the FSU economic analyses have been carried out using subsidized fertilizer prices (40 to 50) Clearly the economic profitability would be lower and the incidence of fertilizer cash outlay loss greater utilizing unsubsidized prices
Trials examining the possibility of growing maize on good sorghum land and sorghum on good millet land by upgrading the soil through a fertilshyizertied ridge combination were also conducted Three years of onshyfarm researcher-managed maize on sorghum land trials proved inconclushysive (FSU Annual Reports) and although a sorghum on millet land experishyment showed promise sorghum plant establishment was a problem (Ohm et al ]985a)
6 The observed farmer adoption rates in different regions correlate well
with experimental evidence which sugests that yields are less variable and more responsive to fertilizer and that there is less risk of losing fertilizer cash outlay as rainfall levels and land quality improves
62
When questioned farmers said that they saw the value of fertilizer but that credit and availability were obstacles to greater use All complex fertilizers are imported from outside the WASAT and usually distribution within each country is handled by a para-statal organization
8 An FSU on-farm farmer-managed experiment involving tied ridges and
mulch (5 Tha) on maize was conducted in two village sites in Burkina in 1984 (Ohm et al 1985a p 17) The mulch part of the experiment was abandoned since only 6 of the 50 farmers had access to sufficient mulch
The MRT is attached to an animal drawn cultivator with one large middle sweep The MRT is essentially a paddle wheel (45 cm in diameter) with four paddles one scraping the ground building up earth until it is tripped by the operator every 1-12 to 2 meters to create the tie in the furrow between the two ridges
10 Analysis of five management factors--plowing tied ridges fertilization
timing planting arrangement and weeding timing--indicated that the major determinants of the yield gap between the experiment station and farmers fields were plowing and tied ridges (Matlon 1985) Also the major problems observed in the on-farm trials with the elite cultivars are drought and heat stress related leading to poor seedling establishshyment and poor flowering and grain filling ability Spittlebug problems have occurred on the new sorghum variety of Framida (Ohm et al 1985b) and striga continues to be a problem with most new sorghum varieties
11 The development of hybrid varieties such as the hybrid sorghums bred for
the Sudan (Gebisa 1986) may play a role in obtaining moderate level management response The poor marketing infrastructures of the WASAT however vould prevent hybrids from being a technology that could be used in the short run Present breeding for disease and pest resistance in sorghim and millet is encouraging (Andrews 1986 Andrews et al 1985) and is expected to play an important role in increasing cereal yields in the intermediate run
12 Empirical evidence linking reduced risk aversion with higher levels of
wealth is not available in the WASAT It has been a standard part of decision theory that at higher levels of wealth risk aversion would decrease (Anderson et al 1977) This proposition seems to be consisshytent with field interviews with farmers about their objectives (see Chapter IV page of this report)
13 Not included among the categories is a high risk averse low wealth
animal traction household While this category undoubtedly exists in the WASAT the number of households in this category would alot be large
14 The recommendation domains presented in Table 5 are discussed at the
inter-household level which considers resource endowments and decisionshymaking in the context of a family unit vis-a-vis another family unit
63
The recommendation domains could also be discussed at the intrashyhousehold level which considers differences--in gender age and access to and control of resources within the household--which may lead to difshyferences in the sequencing and types of technologies adopted by the various sub-groups (see McKee 1983 Nagy et al 1985)
15 The opportunity cost of labor (wage rate from outside employment) ranges
from 30 to 50 FCFAhr (FSU unpublished survey data) At an opportunity cost of 35 FCFAhr farmers would not have lost money by undertaking the construction of tied ridges (Table 2)
16 Calculations made using the procedure by Jaeger (1984) and adding apshy
propriate costs and revenues based on FSU on-farm farmer-managed trials to estimate the yield increases from the use of the MRT (Ohm et al 1985b Nagy et al 1986)
17 The weekly available labor hour figures used in the model are based on
conservative estimates Increasing the labor availabilities by 10 to 20 for the tied ridging period andor allowing tied ridging to also take place in the following period results in tied ridges being conshystructed on all the cereal land
CHAPTER VI
POLICY IMPLICATIONS AND FUTURE AVENUES FOR RESEARCH AND EXTENSION
This report has proposed that the overall sequence of technology intervention for the WASAT is 1) technologies that improve the agronomicenvironment ie water retention and soil fertility improvement With appropriate policy and institutional support this technology combination can be immediately implemented 2) the use when they become available of improved varieties that can exploit moderate input levels If varieties are developed for the moderate input levels recommended in 1) above this techshynology is expected to be available for farmer adoption in the next five to ten years and 3) more intensive livestockcereal systems in the better agricultural areas and a shift back to extensive grazing and forestry in the more marginal agricultural regions There are many types of technolshyogies for those intensive livestockcerealcash crop systems that can now be productively studied on the experiment station and in on-farm trials so that these systems can be available to farmers after the next decade
The first priority of the agricultural policy research and extension community in the WASAT is to develop technologies to increase the yields of the cereal-based systems dominate the The presentfarming which area focus should be on alleviating the low soil fertilitylow soil water retenshytion constraints Complex fertilizers the water retention methods of tied ridges diguettes and dikes and the labor-saving technologies of animal traction and the mechanical ridge tier are a]rady available for extension in much of the region
Tied ridging chemical fertilizer and animal traction however have all been potentially available to farmers in the WASAT for more than two decades Yet there has been little adoption by WASAT food crop producers of any of these three innovations This is because there was little ecoshynomic incentive to adopt these technologies prior to the 1960s because food consumption needs were being met Moreover there was little export demand for sorghum and millct Hence there was little demand for new cereal technologies However with increased population recent droughtsand the deterioration of the soil quality in the higher population regions during the intervening years the demand for new cereal technology has subshystantially increased
Credit fertilizer and animal traction non-availability and lack of information have all been cited as reasons for the low level of farmer adoption of the above technologies in the WASAT From our perspective the principal reason for the failure to adopt these individual components is that the economic impact of each of the three components has not been sufshyficiently high by itself Fertilizer utilization is too risky in poorrainfall years without some simultaneous method to increase the availabilshy
water the critical times of plant development themselves do not resolve the low soil fertility problem Family labor
ity of at Tied ridges by
65
availability constrains the amount of tied ridging construction It apshypears from the on-farm trials and the whole-farm modeling results that all three technologies (including the MRT) would need to be introduced togetherbefore economic incentive and risk levels are adequate for technology adoption Introducing the technologies together would alleviate the soil fertiltty soil water and labor constraints and provide high economic incentives at levels of risk that would be attractive to farmers However as previously discussed farmers adopt technologies sequentially and not as a package
An option is to wait for the research community to develop new techshynologies that will individually provide a sufficient economic incentive at a level of risk that is attractive to farmers Another option is to develop support programs that will enable farmers to sequentially adopt the available technologies en route to total package adoption The review of the constraints to cereal production and the review of the available and future technologies for the WASAT (Chapters IV and V) point out that such individual technologies will not be available in the short run and will probably not be available in the intermediate run (10-15 years) The pressing problems of the WASAT require more immediate solutions which can only be brought about by support programs to facilitate the adoption of the available technologies If the package of available technologies is introshyduced without special government programs farmers are expected to adoptthe technologies in the sequence given for each recommendation domain as outlined in Chapter V (Table 5) Adoption by recommendation domain would vary with those in the low risk aversehigh wealth categories adopting the technologies first groups such asSome the high risk averselow wealth old settlement farmers may never adopt any of the technologies
Implementation of a support program to increase the present cereal production in the WASAT would include
a) credit programs for the cash outlays required by farmers for fershytilizer and animal traction
b) farm mnagement information especially on efficient utilization of animal traction and fertilizer from the extension service
c) development of the input and product markets
thrustA main of the support program would be to select the technologieswithin each recommendation dolvin that farmers would most likely adopt
described Ta|IlAfirst (as in 5) and provide the economic incentives and pre-conditions for farmers to adopt the technology Once farmers become acquainted with the technology the next technology would be supported in a similar manner and so on until the total technology package was adoptedAppropriate economic incentives and pre-conditions would ensure that techshynology adoption proceeded as quickly as possible so that all the farmers could adopt the total package in the shortest possible time
66
To facilitate new-technology introduction some of the potential typesof research and extension institutional support programs are mentioned below
Priorities for Extension and Local Governments
The highest priorities for extension and local government agencies involve focusing on the soil fertilitywater retention technologies of manshyual tied ridging diguettes and dikes complex fertilizers animal traction and the mechanical ridge tier These technologies should be put forward on demonstration fields (using local farmer participation where appropriate) individually and as packages for each of the recommendation domains
There is a role for local government agencies in the construction and maintenance of large dikes and barriers to regulate the speed of rainfall runoff at the village level Within each region individual households would either construct tied ridges andor diguettes--whichever is the most appropriate for the area Where diguettes are used assistance from local government agencies may be required for correct contour placement
A critical role will have to be undertaken by extension agencies to ensure that the appropriate preconditions exist for animal traction adopshytion The preconditions of shorter learning curves for both the farmer and draft animals and higher utilization rates can be facilitated by animal traction programs Extension agencies could be involved in training farmshyers (technical operation and animal maintenance) and in the training of draft animals until a draft animal market develops Shortening the learnshying curve will itseli increase utilization rates which can be further increased by an appropriate complement of implements including the mechanshyical ridge tier
Priorities for On-Farm Testing
The prototype IITA mechanical ridge tier requires further modificashytions at the engineering level to reduce its weight and awkwardness and increase its adaptability for hook-up with a wide range of cultivatorplow equipment (Nagy et al 1986a) Other possibilities include an automatic tripping device and even new design concepts which need to be rigorously field tested with farmer participation As modifications and new design concepts are developed they must be made available to the extension system and local manufacturers and provisions made for information feedback to the on-farm testing agencies The mechanical ridge tier is an implement that can be made locally and every attempt by the local extension agencies to provide prototype copies to local manufacturers should be undertaken Locally-made mechanical ridge tiers enable location-specific adaptations arising from a local manufacturerfarmer interchange
Priorities also include further on-farm testing of diguettes and of modifications of diguettes and barriers Further on-farm testing across the WASAT of raw and acidulated rock phosphate from all the major rock
67
phosphate deposits in the WASAT is required to evaluate the agronomic and economic feasibility of this technology
Priorities for Experimental Research Stations
On-station crop improvement programs require a change in the presentemphasis on screening and selection under high management conditions--manshyagement conditions much higher than can be provided by WASAT farmers in the intermediate run Thus crop improvement programs in the WASAT should conshycentrate on developing varieties that show stability over time and exhibit a response curve that exploits moderate management levels Selection must be focused on resistance to important pests and diseases as well as producshytion superiority under varying levels of soil productivity and available soil moisture--all of which contribute to production stability This change in crop development goals requires new screening and selection proshycedures and an increased interdisciplinary effort between on-station and on-farm research
The designing of labor-saving devices for fertilizer applicationplanting and other field operations should be further studied for both manual and animal traction farmers where applicable Research on water retention methods other than tied ridges or diguettes is required for those areas where these two technologies are not effective especially on the sandier soils characterizing much of the Sahelo-Sudanian zone
CHAPTER VII
SUMMARY
Whole-farm modeling was critical in identifying the potential effect of new technologies and in evaluating the seasonal labor bottleneck As onshyfarm trials produce more technologies that pass the yield and profit criteria whole farm modeling analysis will become increasingly important to identify the interactions of technology components and estimate their potenshytial impact at the farm level
A major contribution of the Purdue farming systems research project was not the identification of the individual constraints but rather a study of their interconnected nature It is necessary for farming systems research projects to concentrate on the well-known synergistic nature of agricultural inputs and not be satisfied with minimum cost input changes which also have minimal effects on yields or profits
The seasonal labor constraint has been stressed as the principal barshyrier to agricultural development in the WASAT and in other semi-arid areas in Africa However a more agronomic orientation to the analysis of the water requirement and 1oil fertility problems was necessary The combined effect of improved water retention increases in soil fertility and overshycoming the seasonal labor bottleneck with the mechanical tied ridger had a substantial impact on farm income Since the combined effects are much larger than the individual effects it is unfortuuiLte that farmers tend to adopt one input at a ime Governmental support of the combined practices appears to be necessary to facilitate their combined introduction
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77
APPENDIX 1
Administrative Report
In December 1978 Purdu University was awarded a two year contract with the US Agency for International Development to establish and operate a farming systems research unit in Burkina Faso as one of the components of the Semi-Arid Food Grain Research and Development Program (SAFGRAD)
This contract AFR-C-1472 had several mandates
1 Analyze small farm conditions and application of new technologies to those conditions
2 Formulate strategies regarding development and application of small farm relevant technology
3 Develop recommendations regarding physical research priorities and
4 Design help organize and analyze farmer field trials and studies as a means of performing the above
After several extensions the contract was amended in 1985 to reflect an additional set of objectives
1 Complete the transfer of the farming systems research methodology and techniques gained under this contract to national research organizashytions in the SAFGRAD countries
2 Finalize analysis of empirical research results
3 Finalize and publish guidelines for the methodological analytical or organizational and operational conduct of FSR in the SAFGRAD region
4 In conjunction with the SAFGRAD coordination office complete the groundwork for a West African regional FSR network
The termination of the project occurred on June 30 1986 Field activities in Burkina Faso were maintained through March 31 1986
The body of this report provides a description of the achievements of the project in terms of its mandate This section is the administrative report covering the implementation of this contrast
Contractor staff were provided logistic support by USAID in accordance with local AID procedures this included housing and utilities furniture household equipment and medical facilities to our long term staff In addition two vehicles were provided to our team for the duration of the project These vehicles were financed outside our contract but from SAFGRAD project funds
Initially the Purdue University team comprising an agricultural economist agronomist and rural sociologist were to be provided office
78
space at the Kamboinse Research station outside the city limits of Ouagadougou At the onset the FSU office was established in Ouagadougou then moved to Kamboinse however because the vehicles provided were not very reliable and transportation problems for local hire staff created major problems the office was relocated in Ouagadougou in agreement with SAFGRAD and USAID The FSU team continued to closely work with the ICRISAT and IITA teams who had responsibility for other resetrch components of the SAFGRAD program
At Purdue University a steering committee composed of the departments heads of Agronomy Agricultural Economics and SociologyAnthropology was established to guide activities of the FSU It frequently met to evaluate progress discuss issues relevant to the project and to formulate overall strategy for achieving project objectives
Technical coordination and backstopping for the project was maintained on the Purdue campus during the entire project period Dr Wilford H Morris provided this service from 1978 to June 1983 and Dr John H Sanders from July 1983 to termination On-campus administrative and logistic support was provided by the Office of International Programs in Agriculture under the directorship of T Kelley White and D Woods Thomas Other administrative staff responsible for project activities were Dr James L Collom associate director IPIA and Mrs Katy Ibrahim administrative assistant for the FSU project
In addition Dr Thomas was a participant of the SAFGRAD Technical Advisory Committee (TAG) and Consultative Committee (CC) of the SAFGRAD which met yearly in Burkina Faso These committees were a channel for review of all SAFGRAD activities in WestCentral Africa
During the seven and a half years the FSU project existed a total of nine long-term staff were on site in Burkina Faso for a total of 225 person months (PM)
Paul Christensen agronomist acting chief-of-party February 1979 to December 1981 - 33 PM
Richard Swanson rural sociologist October 1979 to July 1983 - 46 PM
Ram Singh economist and chief of party April 1979 to Macch 1981 - 24 PM
William Jaeger economistcomputer analyst December 1981 to June 1983 - 19 PM
Ronald Cantrell agronomistchief of party February 1982 to January 1984 - 23 PM
Mahlon Lang economist February 1982 to April 1984 - 26 PM
Herbert Ohm agronomistchief of party August 1983 to August 1985 -24 PM
Christopher Pardy economistcomputer analyst December 1983 to Tune 1983 - 16 PM
79
Joseph Nagy economistchief of party July 1984 to April 1985 14-
PM
In addition several short-term technical staff and consultants traveled to Burkina Faso for a total of 185 PM They are as follows
In 979 Kenneth Jones computer specialist at Purdue spent 50 PM to assist our in-country staff in organizing the data management That same year Ms Annie Buryer a sociologist spent 3 months in the field assisting our rural sociologist in setting up the village questionnaires In 1980 Herbert Butler rural sociologist spent 50 PM assisting in the analysis of the collected research dava In 1981 Stan Cohen computer specialist and agricultural economist spent 4 PM in the analysis of socio-economic data Len Malczynski computer specialist also spent 75 PM in the field in organizing the data Iandiing systems Anne-Marie Kaylen MS candidate in the Department of Agricultural Economics spent eight 1PM in the field to collect data for her thesis
Wilford H Morris technical coordinator for the FSU spent 200 PM in the field to provide support to our in-country team
In 1983 Jon Brandt agricultural economist spent 50 PM in Burkina Faso to assist Kirnseyinga Sawadogo in the collection of data for his PhD Thesis In 1984 Charles Rhykerd agronomist and soil specialist spent 75 PM oking with our staff in collecting soil samples and providing agronomLc support to our staff John Sanders as on-campus technical coordinator spent a total of 100 PM in the field working -ith the field economists
Purdue administrative staff also traveled to Burkina Faso during the existence of this project for a total of 45 person months
PM
T Kelley White acting director IPA 50 Paul Farris Head Agricultural Economics Dept 25 D Woods Thomas Director IPIA 150 Katy Ibrahim Administrative Assistant FSU 100 John Sanders Technical Coordinator 75 James L Collom Associate Director IPIA 50
Purdue University also conducted an internal evaluation of project activities in Burkina Faso in 1984 Members of the team who spent one week in-country were
Bernard Liska Dean School of Agricul-ire William Dobson Head Agricultural Economics Department Marvin Phillips Head Agronomy Department D Woods Thomas Director and Associate Dean International Programs in Agriculture
Sawadogo Sibiri participated in the On-Farm Experimentation Workshop University of Harare Zimbabwe (co-sponsored with CIMMYT) February 6-24
80
1984 the East Africa Agricultural Economics Program CIMMYT Nairobi Kenya October 27 to November 6 and in the evaluation of FSR programs with ACPOs in Senegal February 24 to March 1
Three Burkinabe staff enrolled at Purdue University for additional long-term training
Paul Compaore Agricultural Economics MS 1983-1985 Baya Toe Agricultural Economics MS 1983-1985 Kimseyinga Savadogo Agricultural Economics PhD 1979-1986
All have returned to Burkina Faso Dr Savadogo as a professor at the University of Ouagadougou Paul Compaore and Baya Toe are working in the Burkinabe Ministry of Agriculture
All of these educational activities contributed significantly to quality and dependable data collection and team spirit In addition these --aining activities were a significant factor in the transfer of host country technical and research staff to the national agricultural research program IBRAZ
Training for US graduate students was also made possible throughthis project Ms Anne-Marie Kaylen spent eight months in the field colshylecting data for her MS thesis in agricultural economics Also three graduate students funded under the PurdueINTSORMIL project spent eight months each in Burkina Faso working with our staff in support of the project while collecting data for their field research These were Michael Roth PhD Kimseyinga Savadogo PhD and Ann Bukowski MS Under FSU auspices William Jaeger developed his PhD dissertation on the economics of animal traction in Burkina Faso
The Farming Systems Unit project cooperated in the conduct of two regional workshops In September 1983 in cooperation with ICRISAT and IRAT a regional workshop on farmers participation in the development and evaluation of technology was held in Ouagadougou The proceedings of this workshop were published by che International Develpoment Research Centre In April 1985 the FSU in conjunction with the SAFGRAD Coordination Office conducted a workshop on technologies appropriate for farmers in semi-arid West Africa The proceedings of this workshop (in English and French) were distributed widely by the Office of International Programs in Agriculture
Thirty-six research-based technical papers were written and disshytributed under FSU auspices (See Appendix 2 for a listing of these publications)
The Farming Systems Unit project was not without administrative andor logistical problems Included were such things as unavoidable delays in transfer of funds to the field inadequacy of in-country transportation arrangements imperfection in project design establishing FSU relationshipwith national agricultural institutions and international development assistance organizations internal and international political events and the lack of ex-ante long-term contractual and funding commitments Excellent cooperation among the US national regional and international organizations involved in the program made it possible to resolve such issues with minimal impact on project productivity
81
Purdue University is deeply grateful to the OAUSTRC the SAFGRAD and its Consultative and Technical Advisory Committees USAIDOuagadougou AID Washington the government of Burkina Faso ICRISAT IITA and other enshytities for their assistance and cooperation in the conduct of this project Without such the objectives of this ambitious research could not have been attained
82
APPENDIX 2
Publications List
1 FSUSAFGRAD Staff Questionnaire Utilises pour le Etudes Sur les Systems de Production Agricoles Dans Des Villages Echantillons de Haute Volta Farming Systems Unit Project International Programs inAgriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana January 1980
2 Saunders M 0 Farming Systems Research Unit Working papers (1)Agriculture in Upper Volta The Institutional Framework (2) LocalEcology Population and Ethnic Groups in Upper Volta and (3) TheMossi Farming Systems in Upper Volta International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1980
3 Bruyer A Towards a Use of Survey Materials Report on Zone of Zorgho Farming Systems Unit Project International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana May 1980
4 Christensen P J Observations on the Major Classification of Field Trials Used in Farming Systems Research Farming Systems Unit Project International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana January 1981
5 Christensen P J Rock Phosphate Fertilizer in Upper Volta Part 1 Preliminary Report on Policy Implications of Cereal YieldCharacteristics Farming Systems Unit Project International Programsin Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana April 1981
6 Christensen P J and R A Swanson SAFGRADFSU 1981 Research Programs Farfling Systems Unit Project International Programs inAgriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana April 1981
7 Cohen S Costs and Returns of Household Crop Production NedogoUpper Volta Department of Agricultural Economics Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana September 1982
8 Lang M R Cantrell and J IfSanirs Identifying Constraints and Evaluating New Techology in the Purdue Farming Systems Project in Upper Volta in C B Flora (ed) Animals in the Farming SystemKansas State University Manhattan Kansas pp 184-206 1984
9 Jaeger W K Animal Traction and Resource Productivity Evidence from Upper Volta in C B Flora (ed) Animals in the Farming ystem ibid pp 431-460 1984
10 Singh R D E W Kehrberg and W H M Morris Small FarmProduction Systems ii Upper Volta Descriptive and Productive Function Analysis Experiment Station Bulletin Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1984
11 Lang M G and 24 Roth Risk Perceptions and Risk Management byFarmers in Burkina F-aso Paper presented at the Annual FarmingSystems Conference at Kansas State University in 1984
83
12 Rhykerd C L Constraints and Research Needs for Livestock Production in Upper Volta International Programs in AgriculturePurdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1984
13 Sanders J H The Evolution of Farming Systems Research Towards Where International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1984
14 Roth M and J H Sanders An Economic Evaluation of AgriculturalTechnologies and Implications for Development Strategies in Burkina Faso International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana First presented at the Annual Farming SystemsConference at Kansas State University in 1984
15 Lang M G and R C Cantrell Accenting the Farmers Role Purdue Farming Systems Unit in P Matlon R Cantrell D King and M Benoit-Cattin (edited) Coming Full Circle Farmers Participation inthe Development of Technology International Developmernt Research Center Ottawa Canada pp 63-70 1984
16 Lang M H Ohm and R Cantrell Adaptability Analysis of Farmer-Managed Trials in Farming Systems Research International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1985
17 Lang M G Agricultural Production and Marketing Activities of Women in Burkina Faso International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1985
18 Lang M G Crop and Livestock Marketing Patterns in Burkina FasoInternational Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1985
19 Pardy C R Cereal Sales Behavior Among Farm Households in FourVillages in Burkina Faso International Programs i- AgriculturePurdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1985
20 Nagy J G and H W Ohm Economic Analysis of Tied Ridges and Fertilization in Farmer-Managed Sorghum Trials in Burkina Faso Paperpresented at the International Conference of AgricultLal Economists Malaga Spain 1985
21 Nagy J G L L Ames and H W Ohm Tecchnology Evaluation PilicyChange and Farmer Adoption in Burkina Fa Paper presented at the Farming Systems Symposium Kansas State University Manhattan Kansas 1985
22 Schaber L A Literature Review of Soil Fertility in the West Africa Semi-Arid Tropics (WASAT) International Programs in AgriculturePurdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1985
23 Sanders J H J G Nagy and B Shapiro Developing and EvaluatingNew Agricultural Technology for the Sahel A Case Study in Burkina Faso Submitted to Economic Development and Cultural Change 1985
84
24 Ohm H W and J G Nagy (Editcrs) Appropriate Technologies for Farmers in Semi-Arid West Africa International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1985 359 pages (also available in French)
25 Roth M P Abbott J Sanders and L McKinzie An Application of Whole-Farm Modelling to New Technology Evaluation Central Mossi Plateau Burkina Faso International Programs in Agriculture Purdue bniversity West Lafayette Indiana 1986
26 Diallo N N and J C Nagy Burkini Faso Access and Control of Resources in the Farming Systems Recent Legal Political and Socio-Economic Changes Paper presented at the Conference on Gender Issues in Farming Systems Research and Extension Gainesville Florida February 1986
27 Nagy J C and L L Ames Evaluation of New Technologies in Burkina Faso Using Whole Farm Modelling Paper presented at the Annual Conference of American Agricultural Economists Reno Nevada 1986
28 Sanders J H and B Shapiro Agricultural Technology Development in Burkina Faso in Chapter 12 of Y Moses (ed) Proceedings African Agricultural Develompent Conference Technoloiy Ecology and Society California State Polytechnic Institute Pomona California 1986
29 Nagy J G H W Ohm L L Ames and L D Schaber Analysis of IITASAFGRAD Mechanical Ridge Tier International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1986
30 Nagy J G H W Ohm and S Sawadogo Burkina Faso A Case Study of the Purdue UniversitySAFGRAD Farming Systems Project forthcoming in the Florida Farming Systems Project Case Studies Series 1986
31 Ames L L A Preliminary Report on the Evaluation of New Technologies in Burkina Faso International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1986
32 Annual Report (English) 1979
33 Annual Report (English) 1980
34 Annual Report (English) 1982
35 Annual Report (English amp French) 1983
36 Annual Report (English amp French) 1984
37 Annual Report (English) 1985
38 End of Project Report 1986
85
Theses List
1 Kaylen A M Current Farming Conditions in Nedogo and Digre Upper Volta MS Thesis Department of Agricultural Economics Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana August 1982
2 Jaeger W K Agricultural Mechanization The Economics of Animal Traction in Burkina Faso Stanford University unpublished PhD thesis 1984 To be published as a book by Westview Press
3 Bukowski AS Performance of Grain Markets in Selected Areas of Burkina Faso MS Thesis Department of Agricultural Economics Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana May 1986 Utilized some of the data and research support from the FSU project in Upper Volta but was directly supported by INTSORMIL
4 Roth M An Econoimc Evaluation of Agricultural Policy in Burkina Faso West Africa A Sectoral Modeling Approach unpublished PhD dissertation Department of Agricultural Economics Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana May 1986 Utilized some of the data and research support from the FSU project in Upper Volta but was directly supported by INTSORMIL
5 Savadogo K An Analysis of the Economic and Socio-Demographic Determinants (E Household Food Consumption in Ouagaodugou Burkina Faso unpublished PhD dissertation Department of Agricultural Economics Purdvr University West Lafayette Indiana 1986
LIST OF ACRONYMS
ANOVA Analysis of Variance CIAT Centro Internacional 6e Agricultura Tropical CIMMYT Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maiz y Trigo FCFA Franc Communaut6 Financire Africaine FSR Farming Systems Research FSSP Farming Systems Support Project FSU Purdue UniversitySAFGRAD Farming Systems Unit IARC International Agricultural Research Center IBRAZ Institut Burkinabamp de Recherches Agronomiques et Zootechniques ICARDA International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas ICRISAT International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid
Tropics iFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development IFDC International Fertilizer Development Center IITA International Institute of Tropical Agriculture ILRAD International Livestock Research and Development Program INTSORMIL International SorghumMillet Program IPIA International Programs in Agriculture (Purdue University) IRAT Institut de Recherches Agronomiques Tropicales et des Cultures
Vivri~res IRRI International Rice Research Center MRT Mechanical Ridge Tier NARC National Agriculture Research Center OAU Orgacization of African Unity PCV Peace Corps Volunteer SAFGRAD Semi-Arid Food Grain Research and Development Program USAID United States Agency for International Development WASAT West African Semi-Arid Tropics
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
Food production and consumption trends in the Third World over the past two decades have shifted world attention from Asia to Sub-Saharan Africa (Paulino and Mellor 1984) The Green Revolution in Asia--the increase in rice and wheat yields brought about by improved varieties and an expanded use of fertilizer and other purchased inputs--has greatly increased Asian per capita food production (Pinstrup-Andersen and Hazell 1985) A similar Green Revolution phenomenon however has not yet taken place in sub-Saharan Africa One of the areas of most concern in Sub-Saharan Africa is the geographical region of the West African semi-arid tropics (WASAT) Current food production and population growth trends have led many to adopt a Malthusian perspective about the future of the WASAT
The countries of the WASAT include Senegal Gambia Burkina Faso the southern portions of Mauritania Mali Niger and Chad and the northern portions of Ghana Benin Ni eria and Cameroon (Norman et al 1981) Troll (1966) defines semi-ard tropics as regions where precipitation exceeds potential evapotranspiration for 2 to 7 months of the year Figure I delineates the principal climatic zones in the WASAT based on annual rainfall levels (09 probability isohyets of 1931-60 rainfall data)
The WASAT is one of the poorest regions in the world with 1984 per capita yearly incomes for countries in the area ranging between $US 80 and $US 300 (McNamara 1985) The region as a whole has balance of trade and balance of payments problems The economies depend heavily on foreign aid borrowing and worker remittances People (labor) are one of the biggest exports from the region--an estimated 25 of the labor force of Burkina Faso works in neighboring non-WASAT areas (World Bank 1981) The region exhibits a bottom-heavy age pyramid with country population growth rates ranging between 25 to 30 per ear and a fertility rate averaging 65 children per adult female The growth in per capita food production (1971shy1984) for the region as a whole is negative while levels of food imports (largely from donor agencies) have increased dramatically over the last 25 years (McNamara 1985 Paulino and Mellor 1984)
The declining food production per capita is associated with the conshytinuing droughts of the 1968-73 and 1976-80 periods (Nicholson 1982) and the most recent 1984 drought Other factors such as inadequate economic incentives for farmers and the failure to adapt and adopt new agricultural technologies have also been cited as explanations for the failure of food production to accompany population growth
(Adapted from World Bank 1985)200 o0 200
ALGERIA -200
20
MAURITANIAOE
SahLan NLMALI 3XJ50n n6038 0
uda n - ne13A v C e 0L 0
10 GUINEA-BISS1U 00 2 00 GUINEA i S h i and Sud -nia Zones
SIERRA IVORY 0 IERA LEONECOAST
0HNI -
CLIMATIC ZONES AEO1 o0O Zones Rainfall
-- 350 - 30-Sahelo-aian P Sahelo- aian NL50 - 350
Sudanian 600 -800 0Komts 200 400 600 Sudano-Guinean Above 800 K oM lers shy
200 4 00
deg deg20 0 100 o 10c0 deg 20
Figure 1 West African Sahelian and Sudanian Zones
3
Since the WASAT does nLt have the manland pressure of much of Asia and Asia has been successful in rapidly increasing agricultural production in its prime agricultural areas it is useful to look at the resource base in this region The present manland ratios in the WASAT average roughly15 persons per sq km (World Bank 1985) compared with up to 600 persons per sq km in Asia (McNamara 1985) The poorer agricultural resource base of the WASAT however cannot support the high man-land ratio of Asia (Matlon 1985) For example in the older settlement villages of the Central Plateau of Burkina Faso manland ratios are as high as 60 persons per sqkm (World Bank 1985) These high manland ratios relative to the resource base have been causing the breakdown of the traditional bush-fallow farming systems Traditionally the crop area was cultivated for 3 to 5 years and then left idle for a decade or more to restore soil fertility In many of the older settlement villages increased population has meant limited access to new land a shortening of the fallow rotation period and the culshytivation of more marginal land (Norman et al 1982 Dugue 1985) For example in the village (Figure 2)of Nedogo Burkina Faso many fields have been cultivated as long as the farmers can remember (FSUSAFGRAD 1983) Moreover almost all the crop residues are utilized for feed or building materials or else burned further exhausting the fertility of the soil Declinin7 soil fertility in the older settled regions has bei disshyrupting the cereal production systems pushing the cereals into more marshyginal areas and encouraging a substitution of millet for sorghum (Ames 1986)
During the high rainfall period of the fifties and early sixties intensive crop production was further extended into the Sahelo-Sudanian zone (World Bank 1985) With the droughts and increased desertification of the late sixties and seventies many have become concerned with the posshysible interaction of human settlement and further desertification (Nicholson 1982 World Bank 1985) While this debate has not been resolved there is no doubt that the resource base in much of the Sahelo-Sudanian zone has further deteriorated The cereals deficit problem has become increasingly serious
All three phenomena--the disappearing fallow system the failure to incorporate crop residues and the extension of crop cultivation into more marginal agricultural regions--lead to further soil detcrioration in the absence of technological intervention In overpopulated agriculturalregions such as the Central Plateau of Burkina Faso the bush fallow systemis being replaced by a permanent cultivation system characterized by verylow and stagnant cereal yields (Lang et al 1984 see Ruthenberg 1980 for other examples of this dynamics)
Not all the WASAT is overpopulated Rather many of the regions can be characterized as frontier zones For example the eastern region of Burkina Faso (ie Diapangou Figure 2) with man-land ratios of 15 persons
I
oBURKINA FASO I Principal Cities 3 350
FSU Survey Villages Dori
OuaigoyaBangasse
deg 00 1i0
Dissankuy FauF
Bdobo ogo NGourma 800bullDioulasso bulloBE -I -NIN
TOGOBanfora
GHANA CLIMATIC ZONES Zones Rainfall
IVORY COAST Sahelian NLC- 350IVRYCASlSahelo-Sudanian 350 - 600
Sudanian 600 - 800 Sudano-Guinean Above 800
(I) NLC NORTHERN LIMIT OF CULTIVATION (2) ISOHYETS INn
00
Figure 2 FSU research sites and climatic zones of Burkina Faso
5
per sq km has surplus land and follows the bush-fallow system of cultivashytion However even on the frontier as population pressure increases in the next five years a phenomenon similar to what is now taking place on the Central Plateau of Purkina Faso would be expected to occur It is becoming increasingly important to develop land substituting technologies for the overpopulated regions And although labor substituting technolshyogies are presently still very important on the frontier at the present pace of developnnt the frontier zones will confront similar problems to those in the overpopulated regions during the next decade
Given the present cereals crisis in the WASAT it is becoming critical to develop or ad~pt new agricultural technologies which will reverse the Malthusian trends In the mid-sixties before the start ofthe Green Revolution similar Malthusian statements were made about the agricultural potential of the Indian sub-continent However during the late sixties and seventies agricultural regions in Asia with irrigation or regular assured rainfall had the mosc rapid growth rates in technology diffusion ever empirically documented Although the resource endowment in the WASAT is not as great as that of the Punjab and similar Asian regions research reported here will atuempt to show that there is substantial potential for cereal technology development in the WASAT
The technology development process in the Purdue UniversitySAFGRAD Farming Systems Unit Project had two phases The first phase was the development of a methodology to identify the pressing constraints to cereal production increase and the testing out on farmers fields of technology alternatives available from the experiment station and from similar climatic regions in other countries The second stage was the continued evaluation of successful technologies over a sufficiently long time period and in sufficient detail to allow researchers a feeling of reasonable conshyfidence in their recommendations to both experiment station researchers and to the extension service and government officials involved in agricultural development The principle chapters of this report (III and V) are conshycerned with these two phases of the technology development process The basic methodological concepts potentially useful in other WASAT countries from the farming systems research in Burkina Faso are synthesized in Chapter III In the technology evaluation of Chapter V the results of other WASAT agricultural researchers are combined with those of the Purdue UniversitySAFGRAD Farming Systems program to give a more comprehensive evaluation of the present state of cereal technology development in the WASAT The conclusions synthesize the technology evaluation to draw out the implications for agricultural policy and for future extension and research
6
Footnotes
Rainfall averages have declined by 100 to 150 mm per year since the mid
1960s Updated isohyets using 1961-1985 data were not available In depth information on the countries and regions of the WASAT can be obtained from Kowal and Kassam 1978 McNamara 1985 Norman et al 1981 and World Bank 1985
At present there is some scope for migration to lower population denshysity areas with better soils and rainfall within the WASAT since health investments have been made to eradicate river blindness in some of the more fertile valleys (Sanders et al 1986) Several relocation proshygrams have already been undertakca in Burkina Faso (McMillan 1979) Relocation programs are costly and represent a short to intermediate solution for the WASAI Also people are reluctant to relocate and leave family friends and familar surroundings
CHAPTER II
THE PURDUE SAFGRAD FARMING SYSTEMS UNIT
The Purdue University Farming Systems Unit (FSU) funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) was part of the Semi-Arid Food Grain Research and Development Project (SAFGRAD) from December 1978 to June 1986 SAFGRAD is a regional research coordinating program implemented by the Coordination Office of the Scientific Technical and Research Commission of the Organization of African Unity (OAUSTRC) The SAFGRAD project works in cooperation with 28 sub-Saharan member countries with the coordination office located in Ouagadougou Burkina Faso The principal objective of the SAFGRAD project is to coordinate and strengthen programs in the semi-arid regions of sub-Saharan Africa that are involved in improving sorghum maize millet cowpea and groundnut yields
In the West African Semi-Arid Tropics (WASAT) SAFGRAD coordinates a research and pre-extension program The regional on-station component research is headquartered at the Central Experiment Station at Kamboinse in Burkina Faso and undertaken by IITA and ICRISAT Another component of SAFGRAD in the WASAT is the Accelerated Crops Production Officers (ACPO) program which conducts regional pre-extension and demonstration trials An integral part of the overall program is the farming systems unit which provides linkages between on-station research and the ACPOextension proshygrams The research and extension personnel of SAFGRAD (including the FSR unit) meet yearly to submit an annual report to a Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) The TAC reviews the research programs and submits the results and recommendations to the Consultative Committee (CC) which is a management and policy committee for SAFGRAD The results are passed on to host country research and extension institutions
Within the SAFGRAD framework farming systems research for Burkina Faso was provided by Purdue University for seven years up to June 1986 In the seventies farming systems methodology was still in its infancy Its mandate included the development of methodological guidelines that could be implemented in host country national and SAFGRAD sponsored farming systems programs The specific objectives of FSU were as follows
1 to identify the principle constraints to increased food producshytion
2 to identify technologies appropriate for farmers which could overshycome the production constraints
3 to develop and implement a multidisciplinary research method which could guide production technology and production research to directly address these production constraints
8
4 to identify the elements of that method which could be implemented in national farming systems research programs and
5 to train host country personnel to assume increasing responsibilshyity in their contribution to research
During the life of the FSU program agronomic and socio-economic research was conducted at the on-farm level in five villages (Figure 2) The pecific operational procedures and evolution of the FSU program are reported in Nagy et al 1986b The agronomic and soci-economic field campaign findings of the FSU program are presented in FSU Annual Reports and other FSU publications
In the final year of the contract the FSU program completed the transfer of its in-country taff arid program to tie national agricultural research institution of Burkina Faso (IBRAZ) FSU also worked with the IFAD supported SAFGRAD farming systems personnel aho backstop the national farming systems programs in Butkina Faso and Benin Through regional symshyposia and consultation the methodology and results were made available to other SAFOPAD countries as well Details of the program transfer and field staff training component of objective 5 are reported in the 1985 FSU Annual Report (Nagy and Ohm 1986)
CHAPTER III
FARMING SYSTEMS METHODOLOGY IN THE WEST AFRICAN SEMI-ARID TROPICS (WASAT)
Introduction
The basic concept of farming systems research is that the research system could function more efficiently if more information on the conshystraints which prevent farmers from improving their well-being was obtained at an earlier stage of the research development process than is common in the developing countries Farm-level constraints can be identified with both surveys and on-farm trials A further extension is to supplement the on-farm trials with whole-farm modeling This chapter will be concerned with all three approaches
In developed countries the two-way linkages of communication between farmers and agricultural scientists function better than in the WASAT due to higher educational levels of the farmers better agricultural informashytion systems and financial mechanisms in developed countries which reward the agricultural research establishments and individual scientists for their contributions to resolving farm-level production problems Farming systems esearch can provide an alternative communication linkage which does not require advancements in general education or major changes in the institutional orientation of national research systems
The clientele of Farming Systems Research will depend upon the instishytutional setting and the stage of development of the technology In the initial phases of the agricultural development process as in the WASAT the most important directional flow of information is to the researchers for several reasons First farming systems even in low input agriculshyture are very complex with many systems interactions Farmers have multiple objectives and constraints and these can vary in importance and evolve over time and even in response to the conditions of the production season (Norman 1982)
Agricultural scientists in developing countries often underinvest in understanding these complex systems and farmers objectives before beginshyning research Further they may not adequately respond to knowledge which is available When farmers do not adopt the technologies produced on the experiment station and recommended to them the initial reaction of agricultural scientists in developing countries is often that the problem of non-adoption is with the farmers the extension service or national economic policies rather than with the technologies themselves
Technology development requires a thorough understanding of the scienshytific concepts applied on the experiment station plus a multi-disciplinary approach to understanding the complexity of the farmers environment farmshying systems and decision-making process The most fundamental difference between the experiment station and farmers fields is the necessary shift
10
from component parts of new technologies as produced on the experiment station to systems with impor ant interactions such as are characteristic of farmers production systems
Farming Systems Research helps to overcome these differences by nashybling agricultural scientists to improve their understanding of the comshyplexity of the farmers systems and thereby become more efficient at idenshytifying and resolving the research problems involved in overcoming farmers constraints Two desired final products are a more efficient agricultural research system and an increase in mutual comprehension between farmers and researchers Another product is the facilitation of adoption of new sysshytems of agricultural technology so that these systems can be more rapidly incorporated into the testing and diffusion program of the extension servshyice
The principal stages in farming systems research can be identified by responding to the following questions
a) What do you do first to describe the farmers production systems How much description is enough
b) How do you plan and organize on-farm trials When do you do it What are the differences between experiment station and on-farm trials
c) How do you analyze and supplement the data coming out of the onshyfarm trials What are the relevant questions to be answered about new technology performance on farms
d) At some point in technology development outside factors (exogenous variables) such as economic policy or the further development of input production or distribution capacity such as a fertilizer marketing system improved credit or a seed industry may be constraining technology introduction How does FSR set up its own boundaries while still maximizing its effectiveness in providing relevant information to facilitate the production of new technologies
e) Who should do the farming systems research Presently International Agricultural Research Centers spend an estimated 10 to 15 million dollars annually on FSR (Anderson and Dillon 1985 p 1)
The following sections of the paper will attempt to address these speshycific questions on farming systems methodology Clearly there will be some biases from the experiences of the Farming Systems Unit in Burkina Faso and the otber FSR experiences of the authors These eperiences will be utilized as illustrations
11
Describing Farmers Environments Production Systems and Objectives The Baseline Study Stage
If the principal objective of tarming systems research is to improve the understanding of agricultural scientists about farm-level conditions then this data-collection or description process must begin with them They help to define the research problems and objectives of the fieldwork and to understand the particular target group of farmers Agricultural scientists need to be involved in farm-level research design in order to provide more information and to evaluate the accuracy of their hypotheses about farmer conditions and decision-making
The utilization of baseline studies for developing research priorities requires the identification and ranking of the principle conshystraints to increased output of the commodities studied This is not a simple process since there will be a strong bias from the individual disshyciplines of the researchers in the definition of the farm-level constraints Breeders will identify varietal characteristics for overcomshying specific yield constraints pathologists diseases economists will point out particular policies or markets which reduce the profitability of specific new technologies Hence a multi-disciplinary approach to the definition of constraints will be necessary from the beginning of the research design process Some investment by researchers in the tnderstandshying of other disciplines will also be necessary
Useful baseline research has included the economic quantification of production losses from various insects and diseases This information helped confirm the research strategies of resistance breeding for field beans at CIAT (Sanders 1984 Sanders and Lynam 1982) Similarly in Burkina Faso the initial anthropological descriptions of faring systems (M Saunders 1980) and the economic analysis of farmers objectives and seasonal labor constraints helped provide orientation for agricultural researchers in the farm trials (Lang et al 1984)
An important issue within this baseline stage is that it is extremely easy to overinvest in data collection and descriptive surveys Moreover much of the literature on farming systems puts an excessive emphasis on baseline data collection so that the research problem identification hyposhytheses analytical methodologies and even literature reviews are neglected The frequent consequence is the amassing of large quantities of data which are only partially analyzed Even with analysis much of the data collection traditionally undertaken at this stage of FSR has resulted in interesting descriptions of little relevance to researchers in reshydefining their research priorities
There are several methods for avoiding the pitfalls of random and largely irrelevant data collection The first is an extension of a method presently utilized by many agricultural scientists to identify for themshyselves the important constraints in farmers fields This involves their going into the field to see farm-level problems in their disciplinary
12
3 area A simple extension is to make these field trips multi-disciplinary and to involve some pre-trip discussion and mutual definition of field objectives If farm-level interviewing remains unstructured the datashyamassing problem can be avoided Multi-disciplinary collaboration is begun and can bd continued in the development of a report synthesizing the field observations Often these initial trips or sondeos have led to more formal multi-disciplinary questionnaire development and surveying in a second stage Clearly with the involvement of several disciplines the demand for data can increase exponentially
To more rapidly interest the agricultural scientists a different technique is suggested At any given time agricultural scientists genershyally have their own ideas of what will work on farmers fields These ideas can come directly from their own experiments from observations of farmers in other regions or from Vhe literature The suggestion here is to move rapidly into on-farm trials This will then give a defined frameshywork for supplementing on-farm trials with diagnostic surveys which have well-defined objectives ie to better evaluate specific socio-economic issues involved in introducing these new technologies tested on the farmshyers fields into the farmers production system
In these baseline surveys of the functioning of the farm and household systems at the beginning of an FSR project the anthropologists and sociologists have often made outstanding contributions to our understanding (M Saunders 1980 Reeves and Frankenberger 1982) When these surveys by the social scientists have been integrated with the research objectives of agricultural scientists their utility has been further increased It is recommended that a farming systems project begin with baseline surveys of farm and household conditions in each major target area preferably undershytaken by an anthropologist (also see Simmonds 1984 p 74) These baseshyline studies and a commencement of on-farm trials in the first production season are suggested as the appropriate way to begin farming systems reshysearch in the WASAT
The principal emphasis here is on moving rapidly to on-farm trials with supplementary analysis to provide understanding of the potential role of the new technologies in the whole farm system The methodology for this type of evaluation will be explained in detail in the fourth section on Evaluation As this type of on-farm testing and modeling analysis is being undertaken further diagnostic surveys are often useful to complement the principal investigation of the on-farm trials and farm modeling An exshyample in the Burkina Faso FSU program after three to five years of on-farm testing in different villages was a survey to evaluate adoption by parshyticipant and non-participant farmers of the new technologies tested
Designing and Implementing On-Farm Trials
There are two central issues in the implementation of on-farm trials First multi-disciplinary collaboratin is essential especially between agricultural scienmtists and economists Secondly the research objectives
13
of the experiment station and on-farm trials are different hence the organization design and arnalysis of the on-farm trials are different from those on the experiment station
True multi-disciplinary collaboration is not easy since each discishypline has its body of literature its journals certain statistical methods customarily dominated by its practitioners and even its philosophical attitudes about research and the process of agricultural development Moreover universities and many agricultural research institutions are organized by discipline Promotions in universities are linked to publicashytions in the high prestige journals of individual disciplines
To overcome these barriers between disciplines strong institutional support and continued personal relationships are both required There is a tendency in farming systems projects to give control of the on-farm trials to either the biological or the social scientists or to compartmentalize their efforts For example the agricultural scientists might manage the researcher-managed on-farm trials and the economists the farmer-managed trials Or the agricultural scientist might ask the economists help in interpreting data without collaborating with himher on field research planning and design
The most basic differences between agricultural scientists and econoshymists are in their treatment of data (Collinson 1981 p 442) Agriculshytural scientists are trained to be extremely careful in data generation to verify results over a number of years and to utilize variations of analyshysis of variance to analyze the significance of yield differences However policymakers generally need new technology recommendations in short time periods and farmers are more interested in the profitability and fit into their operati s of one or two new systems of production than in the idenshytification of the level of significance of the treatments and their interactions
Economists with simple modeling and synthetic estimates (judgements of agricultural scientsts) can help fill the gap between the public policymakers and the farmers demands for new technology information and the output from agricultural scientists Some knowledge of the agriculshytural sciences and some simple modeling are the necessary components of the economists contribution The primary requisite for successful interdisshyciplinary collaboration is the desire of the team to respond rapidly to real world problems of technology evaluation even if the data utilized are preliminary and some of them are synthetic Preliminary results can always be refined and improved with further experiments andor data collection and analysis
One important contribution of Farming Systems Research has been to demonstrate the strategic importance of on-farm testing of new technologies as a critical component of the agricultural research process (for an estishymate of the rate of return to this research see Martinez and Arauz 1984) The primary unit in new technology production is the experiment station
14
However once the component parts of new technologies have been tested on the experiment station they can be combined into packages and tested under a wide range of farming conditions (Figure 3) The synergistic or multishyplicative (rather than additive) impact of combining several factors of production is well kriown in the agricultural sciences The individual factors are identified and measured on the experiment station In the onshyfarm trials combinations of factors are evaluated to identify new systemsof production that are profitable and fit into farmers production systems
On the experiment station non-treatment inputs are held at fixed but generally high levels so that they do not affect the performance of the treatment input(s) Usually the potential for static (increased variance) in the response of the treatment input(s) is reduced by the high levels of utilization of other inputs Experiment station trials tend to study one or sometimes two factors in considerable detail Experiment stations are usually selected in the best agricultural regions and over time due to different cultural practices the agricultural conditions become substanshytially different from those on farmers fields (Sanders and Lynam 1982 Byerlce Collinson et al 1981)
Once the more basic experiments have been undertaken on the station and before recommendations are made farm-level testing is necessary If the technology performance depends upon soil climate insect or disease incidence the farm trials can help identify these factors and estimate the economic impact of overcoming the specific constraint at different levels of its incidence For example fertilizers will have a larger impact in low soil fertility regions and a disease resistant variety will be more impressive where the disease occurs A water retention technique such as tied ridges wouli be expected to work better in the heavier soils In sandier soils the ridges will be more rapidly destroyed by wind or water Moreover the on-farm trials provide a crude estimate of the relative importance of the specific constraints on the farmers fields during the production period evaluated
One method for analyzing these betwcen-farm differences in new techshynology puiformance in greater detail is to utilize a large number of farms for the farm-level trials Repetitions are often made by increasing the number of farms rather than includi ig repetitions on each farm site (DeDatta et al 1978 Sanders and Lynam 1982) One implication of this design is that variance within farms cannot he separated Another is that within any constrained planting zeason a larger number of farms can be included
Another way to handle the between-farm variation in technology perforshymance is to stratify the environments in which the technology is evaluated
15
Experiment Station On-Farm Trials
More Basic Research More Applied Research
Component Research Systems or Package Research
Variance from Non-Treatment Analyze Variance from Non-Factors Minimized Treatment Factors
Repetitions on Same Experiment Replications Across Farms
New Technologies Originate Hrre New Technologies Evaluated Here Primary Activity Secondary Activity
Emphasis on Feedback of Information to Researchers in the Experiment Station
Based Upon Technology Performance on Farms--Request Technology Modifications from the Experiment Station
To Extension Service for Further Testing and Dissemination
Figure 3 Stages of the research process
SOURCE Adapted from Sanders and Lynam 1982 p 99
16
Soil types rainfall regimes or even farmer characteristics can be utilshyized to define research domains However the performance of many new technologies under different farm-level conditions is often a stochastic event The incidence of diseases and insects is unknown at planting time so there is no way to define research domains for these problems If there is a large sample the data carn be stratified after the trials Since it is often difficult in practice to minimize the on-farm performance variashytions of new technologies by defining research (or recommendation) domains with homogeneous characteristics it is frequently necessary to employlarger sample sizes ie more on-farm trials The number of trials necessary will also depend upon the types of technologies evaluated
In the initial years of on-farm testing (early and mid-70s)economists and other social scientists frequently administered the trials Over time agricultural scientists have generally taken over the implemenshytation of these trials This transition has improved trial quality since agricultural scientists are trained for this activity However the failure to adequately specify the objectives of on-farm testing can lead to trials which are only replicas of experiment centtation trials
With the above detailed examination of the on-farm methodologies it is easy to forget that the origin of new technologies is the experimentstation This is the primary unit in the technology development processThe on-farm testing performs an important evaluation function in the reshysearch production process but it is secondary to the primary organ of agricultural research the experiment station Moreover the quality of the on-farm trials will depond upon the input from the agriculturalscientist In the design and the evaluation phases the interdisciplinary input especially fcom econiomists will be critical
The integration of the on-farm and station-based research and their links to diagnostic surveys of the farmers in the target regions and to the operational research utilizing the data resulting from the on-farm trials are [llustrated in Figure 4 As mentioned previously both the diagnostic surveys and the evaluation of on-farm trials have important roles and should function simultaneously The operational research for the evaluashytion of these on-farm triaLs will be considered in the next section
Evaluation of On-Farm Technology Performance
The on-farm trials combine several factors or component parts preshyviously evaluated on he experiment station into different systems or packages Isolating each factor aid its interactions in these trials freshyquently becomes unmanageable Beets (1982) cites an IRRI cropping systemexperiment with 750 possible treatment combinations However 7 the princishypal concern of the on-farm trials is to identify combinationswhich are profitable of factorsand fit into the farmers systems of produccion
17
Target group farmers of a recommendation
domain in a Vagion
Survey diagnosis of farmer priorities resource and environment problems and development opportunities
Identification ofunsolved technical problems and possible new practices and materials relevant to farmers development opportunities
On-farm adaptive research
Operational research for identification and evaluation of materials and techniques
offering potential for problemsolution and the exploitation
of opportunities
Station-based technical
On-farm testing via experiments on apparentl relevant materials and techniques under farmers conditions
Use of existing body of knowledge of materials and techniques suitable for the climate and soils of the ion
Component research usingcommodity and disciplinary
research solvingpriority technical problems
and investigating possible new materials and practices
Figure 4 Schematic view of farming systems research method (after Collinson 1982)
18
The treatments of the on-farm trials representing different systems pass through three phases of evaluation (Figure 5) The first phase is identical to the experiment-station analysis some variation of analysis of variance (ANOVA) It determines whether under farmers conditions there are significant yield differences with the new technologies as comparedwith the treatment representing traditional farmers practices
However technology needs to move beyond yield differences to be acceptable to farmers With a minimal increase in data requirements from the local environment the yield data from the treatments are converted into gross and then net revenue utilizing product prices and input costs This simple budgeting answers the second question in the flowchart of Figure 5 Is the new technology more profitable than farmers traditional practices
Mention should be made here of two frequently cited problems with simple budgeting (a) price variation over time and within the production season and (b) costing of non-traded inputs such as land and family labor Product prices can vary substantially within a year especially with the customary post-harvest price collapse and between years in regions with substantial climatic fluctuations and limited governmental role in pricestabilization Moreover input costs will depend upon government subsidies and the real input costs to the farmer will also depend upon the availability of an input such as fertilizer at the right place and the right time Questions about the appropriate prices and costs to be utilshyized in the evaluation are valid concerns which need to be dealt with in the economic analysis of new technology
Price variability and the effects of government policy and market development mean that profitability is a complicated decision which can be influenced by the farmers marketing strategies and by macro factors outshyside the farmers control Nevertheless farmers need to be able to devise some strategy to make a profit from a new technology Sensitivity analysiswhich varies the prices and costs over the relevant range can be utilized to respond to this problem The simple budgeting analysis of on-farm trials is usually a mean or median estimate The variation in yield pershyformance and prices received between farms is a useful complement to this measure
Some of the relevant inputs that neeJ to be costed for budgetinganalysis may not have a market price In the WASAT family labor duringcertain periods for performing specific cultural operations such as the first weeding has a very high implicit value and may even be constrainingcertain types of output expansion Mathematical programming models take into account the implicit value of the inputs and put a cost on them (shadow price) whereas budgeting treatments make some arbitrary assumpshytions about the labor market Land rental depreciation of the capitalinput and management costs are also difficult to estimate and are
19
Trial New farm results trials
(1)
Are there Yes significant Increases No
Infarm yields with the new technologytech~(noloy
(2) farms be
Ysmore
Is thenwtechnology
profitable than
farmers practices~(multiple
Noaffecting
stratified bycharacteristics
the successful
performance of the newregres-
Yes
sion cluster analysis)
(3)
Yes new technology N Newfit into the No [experiments
farmers production system(programming marketing)
extension service Analysis and diagnosisL
for further testing feedback for andor technology redesign
extension
FLgure 5 Flow Chart for New Technology Evaluation in Farin Trials
Source Sanders and Lynam 1982 p 100
In any of the three stages of evaluation a new technology treatment may not pass the criteria based upon mean values Then astratification of farms is attempted upon an a priori basis For example the performance of a fertilizer technology would beInfluenced by the soil types Ifthere were two types of soils and there was a return to fertilization on one and not the other thenstratification into these two groups would be undertaken For the subgroup of farms where the fertilizer technology waseffective the three stages of evaluation would commence again The subgroup where fertilization was not effective would raiseresearch questions for analysis and diagnosis as Indicated in the above flowchart
20
often omitted in the simple or partial budgeting In spite of the difshyficulties of costing some inputs and the price variation profitability comparisons with sensitivity analysis give substantially more information than yield comparisons
Nevertheless even profitability is not a sufficient criteria for farmer acceptance A new system may be profitable but may require more labor at a peak period than the farmer can release from his other operashytions or the new activity may have much higher capital requirements than the farmer can obtain The third question (Figure 5) is whether the techshynology fits into the farmers production system Whereas simple budgeting can indicate that one activity is more profitable than another mathematishycal programming takes into account all other present and potentialactivities and the available on-farm and off-farm resources Utilizing this technique and the above information an estimate of the extent of potential adoption of a new technology on a representative farm can be made Moreover the farm-level constraints to the further adnption of more profitable nctivities can be identified Clearly the value of this modelshying will depend upon the researchers understanding of the farming systpmand his ability to simplify the model to the essential elements
These mathematical programming whole-farm modeling techniques have been operationalized at the farm level for approximately twenty years so their practical value in assisting public and farmer decision-making in developed countries has been repeatedly demonstrated (Doster et al 1981 McCarl 1982) One difficulty in the implementation of this technique in developing countries has been the computer requirement however the rapid diffusion of micro computers to the developing countries is resolving this problem even in the WASAT Nevertheless there is a necessary time investshyment involved in training the technicians economists and agricultural scientists to implement the se models and to interpret the results
Mathematical programming forces researchers to focus their data colshylection on the systems problems of production in a whole-farm context (forreviews and applications see Anderson et al 1985 Ghodake and Hardakef 1981 Roth et al 1986) Simple technical coefficients representing the relationships between inputs and outputs and the resources available to the farmer are the relevant data sets for evaluation of profitability and the fit of the new technologies into the farmers systems of productionAdjustments in the modeling can be made for more complicated farmer beshyhaviors than profit maximization Risk avoidance can be explicitlyincluded in the analysis with programming Other constraints imposed byeconomic and technical factors can frequently be included
Another step in technology evaluation could be the analysis of the intra- and inter-household effects (see McKee 1984 Nagy Ohm and Sawadogo 1986) There has been much concern recently with the role of women in farm production and consumption analysis more specific considerashytion of their roles in land use investment and consumption decisions are warranted Moreover specific technologies could have equity effects on
21
different types o6 farms and policymakers are often concerned with these potential outcomes
Many other considerations could also be raised such as environmental concerns or the cultural trauma often associated with economic or institushytional change However the emphasis of this paper is responding to the three questions in the flow diagram of Figure 5 Positive answers to these questions have been associated with farmer adoption of new technologies in both Colombia (Sanders and Lynam 1982 p 104) and Burkina Faso (Sanders et al 1985 pp 24-28) thus providing support for the evaluation criteria presented here These evaluation criteria as reflected in the three questions of Figure 5 appear to be logical simple and powerful for undertaking farm-level evaluation of new technologies
Micro vs Macro Approaches to Farming Systems Research
The farming system fits into and is affected by many larger systems Agricultural policy the availability of inputs and the functioning of the product markets all affect farm-level decisions about new technologies and farm-level planning for the development of new technologies
The most conservative approach in on-farm technology development is to assume that all these systems are not evolving and to attempt to develop new farming systems for the present levels of development in the other systems In the WASAT this orientation would precipitate a search for minimum input cost systems such as
a) new varieties used without chemical inputs such as inorganic fertilizer
b) higher densities c) different planting dates d) different rotations e) more systematic use of multiple cropping f) more utilization of on-farm inputs such as mulch and manure
These types of marginal changes are attempts to obtain small yield increments utilizing either available resources on the farm or an input such as a new variety which requires a minimal cash expenditure Oneshyinput changes of available resources such as planting dates and rotations are easy for farmers to implement and observe and many farmers carry on small experiments of this type The observation that farmers are not utilizing these adjustments appears to be good evidence that there are technical reasons for them not to utilize them G~ferally the yield effects of the small adjustments ate either very small or under certain natural condit ns they precipitate other problems irn the cropping system For example in Colombia higher field bean densities significantly inshycreased disease incidence even with spraying (CIAT 1979 p 92)
In the last decade the French international agricultural research institute (IRAT) has been joined by three other institutes (CIMMYT
22
ICRISAT and IITA) in the WASAT Their principal research activity has been the development of new food crop varieties especially cereals Yet few cereal varieties have been successful enough to displace local cultivars Matlon (1985) estimated that the new cereal varieties presently occupy less than 5 of the WASAT crop area In our view new varieties unaccompanied by other inputs belong in this group of marginal changes which have had little impact Why Much of the WASAT is characterized by inadequate and irregular rainfall and low fertility soils These are difficult agricultural conditions for one-inpit changes Therefore it appears that WASAT farmers will neei to itilize higher levels oflyurchased inputs and to take more risks in order t) increase their incomes
Presently the level of purchased input utilization in the WASAT especially chemical inputs is extremely low The eight Sahelian countries have the lowest chemical fertilizer consumption in the world at less than 3 kgha on crops Animal traction is still in the introductory stage at less than 15 of the farmers in the WASAr (Matlon 1985) Moreover only a smail portion of the cereals are marketed (less than 10 in FSU sample villages on the Central Plateau in Burkina Faso) Only 3 of the cropland in the eight Sahelian countries is irrigated (Matlon 1983) With these low levels of input use and infrastructure it does not appear to be approshypriate to develop new technologies for high levels of input use However it is important to make improvements in the marketing systems so that modshyerate input levels can be utilized and there will be increased marketing of the cereals
Marginal changes such as the minimal input utilization changes disshycussed previously are not expected to be sufficient to interest farmers or to lead to sustained yield increases Moderate input levels including chemical inputs are expected to be necessary to obtain significant yield increases which fit economically into the farmers production systems (see Chapter V for specific details on chemical fertilizer) Hence as new technologies are being developed and implemented over time input and proshyduct marketing institutions must also evolve The development of these markets may require governmental support and further research The effishyciency of the para-statal product marketing agencies and the role of prishyvate and public institutions in input markets are two primary issues of concern in the present agricultural development literature on Sub-Saharan Africa
What role should FSR projects have in influencing agricultural policy and other macro issues Historically there has been an urban bias in agricultural policies in most WASAT countries To keep food prices low for urban consumers WASAT governments have frequently intervened via parashystatal marketing organizations To compensate farmers for the low product prices these same governments often have provided input subsidies to farmshyers Presently the World Bank and US AID hTje been pressuring WASAT governments to eliminate these input subsidies At least in the short run this will reduce the profitability of agriculture discourage investshyment in agriculture and delay technology adoption Part of the evaluation
23
of new technologies by the FSR program should include some sensitivity analysis to estimate the farm-level effects of various agricultural polishycies including the elimination of input subsidies
In the recent summarv of FSR for the World Bank (Simmonds 1984) a distinction was drawn betweei modifications to present farming systems and entirely new systems of production Improved agronomy with moderate levels of inputs and ultimately introducing new varieties for these improved systems would be in the first category (and see Chapter V for concrete examples) However many of the poorer more marginal environments in the WASAT ultimately will need to gradually withdraw from crop production and move into grazing systems or forestry Crop farming in the WASAT migrated further north after the high rainfall period of the fifties As yield increases are attained in those regions of rainfed aiculture with more potential and in the river valleys and irrigated areas some present crop areas can be returned to more extensive agricultural systems Farming systems research will need to make some decisions about the regions with the most agricultural potential For those truly marginal regions more comprehensive systems changes may be necessary than are customarily evaluated in farming systems research
r-tional policy factors and national agricultural development planshyning cannot be ignored in FSR Many of these macro factors and evolving changes need to be explicitly incorporated into the analysis of which technologies and regions are appropriate for evaluation Nevertheless it is recommended that modeling concentrate on the farm level Without much better micro data and analysis than is presently available in most developshying countries extending farm models to sector analysis seems to be only a training device for economists rather than a useful exercise to enlighten agricultural development planners As the micro-modeling foundation is improved in the next five to ten years the agricultural sector models will be able to give a more useful input into agricultural policy formulation in the WASAT countries
Which agencies should undertake the on-farm testing
FSR presently takes five to ten percent of the budgets of several IARCs (Simmonds 1984 pp 67 68) and the IARCs have generally taken a leadership role in field application of on-farm testing The long-run frequently stated objective of the IARCs is to turn this activity over to the national agricultural research systems (NARC) The rationale is that the on-farm trials give very location-specific results The IARCs can develop methodologies and demonstrate the utilization of new research activities to the NARCs but ultimately larger numbers of on-farm trials in many regions will need to be undertaken in developing countries to evaluate the diverse technologies being produced in the IARCs and NARCs Not only does the scale of this testing make it infeasible for the IARCs to undertake all of it themselves but also much of the testing will be outside the commodity mandates of the individual IARCs
24
The institutional placement of on-farm testing depends upon the relative importance of the two clienteles for the products of the research at a given stage of technology development These two potential clienteles are the extension seryjce and the agricultural researchers On-farm trials which are successful give important information to the extension service and to those public officials involved with agricultural policy On-farm trials which are not successful give feedback on farm-level problems with the technologies to researchers at the experiment stations in both the national and international centers
If the primary emphasis of the on-farm trials needs to be on feedshyback then there are two problems with the present location of most farming systems research in the IARCs First several of the centers put the principal emphasis of their on-farm trials on providing information for the NARCs and the extension services (Simmonds 1985 pp 92-97) Presently there is less concern with feedback from the on-farm trials to IARC reshysearchers on the relevance and problems of the technologies they are developing Organizationally it appears to be very difficult for a divishysion of one institution to ierve for very long as an effective critic of its own activities
Secondly most of the IARCs Pre crop-breeding institutions including CIMMYT IRRI CIAT ICRISAT ICARDA and IITA Two of these centers CIMMYT and IRRI have been very successful in producing new varieties for those environments with adequate assured water availability and moderate to high levels of input utilization However in most of the harsher environments including the WASAT where these conditions are not met improvements in agronomy to attain moderate purchased input levels may need to precede the introduction of new varieties On-farm testing undertaken or financed by the IARCs tends to concentrate on the varietal effect since that is their mandate In these harsher environments institutions other than the IARCs (or even the NARCs which receive IARC assistance of new germ plasm) may need to do the on-farm testing
This on-farm testing in harsher climatic regions such as the WASAT would concentrate first on identifying agronomic improvements ie the combination of measures to improve water retention and soil fertility At a later stage the IARCs and NARCs could develop new varieties for these improved (but not high input) production systems The main points here are that at least in the WASAT stage of agricultural development the princishypal focus of on-farm testing will need to be on feedback to the research station and the principal focus of research on agronomic improvements
On-farm testing can be considered either as the last stage of the agricultural research process befcre passing the innovation on to the Extension Service or the first stage of the Extension process before demonstration trials and active diffusion measures Clearly there needs to be interaction between the NARC and the Extension Service consisting of the regular exchange of information and even planning of the on-farm trials If there is sufficient exchange of information and collaboration
25
in on-farm trial design the institutional location of these trialswill be less important
In summary on-farm trials will need to be undertaken by most agencies involved in agricultural experimentation in the WASAT Communication barriErs are sufficiently large between scientists and farmers that this type of intermediate activity is expected to be necessary for several decades since the IARCs NARCs and other agencies apparently need this source of feedback on the performance of their technologies Since we have been stressing the importance of feedback all through this chapter we argue that the on-farm trials should be located in the research rather than the extension entity so that feedback results are more readily acceptable at the experiment station
As on-farm trials move into the NARCs and are financed by their own internal financial resources lower ccst methods for conducting on-farm trials must be sought These trials tend to be very intensive in their use of highly qualified scientific manpower for planning and evaluation Their execution requires good logistic support and training for a large number of field workers It would appear that in the WASAT external financing and external scientific manpower will be necessary for some time to continue high levels of on-farm testing
Conclusions
Defining farmers constraints to increasing agricultural production is a complicated task best illustrated by example In the conclusions to this report (Chapter VI) we return to this problem to illustrate the conshytribution of the Purdue farming systems project to constraint identification in the WASAT Meanwhile the survey process can be divided into an initial or baseline study which describes the farmers production and household systems and supplementary or diagnostic surveys which invesshytigate particular research areas as they arise For the baseline study the in-depth village-household production and consumption analyses freshyquently undertaken by anthropologists and sociologists seem especially relevant to an understanding of the farming systems in the areas specifishycally targeted for further research activity during the on-farm stage of FSR Supplementary diagnostic 3urveys can then be undertaken in response to specific objectives of th farm-level work especially the on-farm testing of new technclogies These will often be within the disciplinary area of agricultural economists In the modeling stage of the evaluation process there will frequently be a need for supplementary farm business or household information
One primary recommendation here is that the on-farm testing phase of the FSR begin in the first production season Agricultural scientists will generally have a series of recommendations of component parts for farm testing Putting these individual factors together into technology packages and testing them under farmers conditions will help to further develop their understanding of farmers objectives and systems The
26
agricultural scientists will generally have much more interest in field experiments than in the diagnostic surveys In this initial stage of onshyfarm testing the principal direction of information flow will be feedback to the researchers as the packages are expected to have either technical or economic prulblems impeding their acceptance by farmers
Multi-disciplinary collaboration especially between the agricultural scientists and economists is essential for the on-farm testing Agriculshytural scientists know well the mechanics of the testing process Econoshymists understand the farmers objectives Both need to collaborate to understand the interactions and complexities of farmers systems of proshyduction There should be collaboration in research design to avoid replishycating experiment station trials and to obtain the necessary data for economic analysis
On the farm the treatments are generally different systems of production rather than individual factors The analysis proceeds from a statistical analysis of the significance of yield differences to economic concerns with profitability and the fit into the farmers systems of proshyduction The comparison between treatments analyzes the potential benefits to the farmers from new technology adoption since the control is a proxy for the farmers system of production The simplest economic analysis is the evaluation of profitability using partial budgets However this type of analysis is not as simple as it appears because of price variation and the difficulty of attiibutinrg prices to some production factors Generally an attempt is made to overcome these budgeting problems with sensitivity analysis
The final step in the evaluation is to consider the potential fit of the activity irto the farmers systems of production with mathematical proshygramming This whole f=crm analysis simulates the farmers decision-making process by including information on all present and potential activities using the data on on-farm and off-farm resource availabilities New sysshytems of production that pass through all three stages of this evaluation are expected to be adopted by farmers There is some adoption evidence from both Colombia and Burkina Faso supporting the above assertion
In the harsh envirarunent of the WASAT given the very low utilization of purchased inputs at present marginal agronomic changes such as density timing or even varietal change are expected to have little or even negashytive impact Larger systems changes involving technologies which simultaneously augment water conservation and soil fertility are hypothesized as necessary in order to raise yields sufficiently so that these new systems not only yield more than farmers practices on their own fields but also are profitable and fit into farmers production systems
National economic and agricultural policies can have a large impact on technology evaluation and even the planning of FSR Policymakers need to be concerned with creating an environment in which farmers can make money from adopting new technologies In the short run in the WASAT the
27
elimination of input subsidies especially if ceilings are retained for product prices will make it more difficult for farmers to profit from new technology adoption By evaluating the impact of different agricultural and economic policies on the farm-level profitability and potential adopshytion of new technologies the FSR program may be able to help influence governmental policy formation
Another impact of national policy is on agricultural development planning Frequently FSR programs are designed for marginal agricultural areas Alternatives to developing technologies for these regions may be public health investments in river valleys and yield-improving strategies in the dryland regions with better agricultural resources If yields can be sufficiently improved for the higher resource regions some shifting into livestock or even forestry may be appropriate land-use decision for the more marginal agricultural areas For these types of land-use changes government would need to finance the human resettlement costs Change in agricultural activities of this magnitude are not generally included in FSR Hence Simmonds (1984 p 121) developed a new term for it New Farming Systems Develonment (NFSD)
In the WASAT a prerequisite to new variety development appears to be the simultaneous utilization of moderate input levels to improve water retention and soil fertility Once these agronomic improvements are in place new variety introduction is expected to have more potential for sucshycess than at the present time Some of the on-farm trials in the WASAT may need to be underjgken by agencies whose principal activity is not new variety development
The on-farm testing can be either the final step in the research proshycess of the NARC IARC or other research institution or the fi t step in the Extension Service before demonstration trials or other disL mination activities The institutional location should depend upon whether the prishymary product is feedback on technology improvement to experiment station researchers or feedforward of technologies to be disseminated by the Extension Service Since the process of feedback to researchers is conshysidered to be the most important objective of on-farm testing in the early stages of agricultural technology development in the WASAT our institushytional preference for the location of these trials is with the national agricultural research centers (NARCs) rather than the national extension service The scientists in the on-farm trials will know how to convince the scientists on the experiment station of the validity of their results Some of them may even fulfill algual role working on both the experiment station and the on-farm trials As more technology is validated in the on-farm trials and can move on to the Extension Service the returns to investments in the institutional ties between the NARCs and the Extension Service will be increased
28
FOOTNOTES
This type of infrmation flow is customarily referred to as feedback
Farming Systems and other research programs also attempt to provideinformation on new technologies to farmers and extension agents Anyagricultural research program ult imately needs to have an impact on the well-being of farmers in order to survive Since the economic imporshytance of this directional flow of information to farmers is obvious we consider it to be more importlant to stress here the importance of the feedback to researchers so that they are more effective in doing their job ie producing new technologies
2 Dillon (1976 pp 6-7) contrasts philosophic differences of scientific
investigation into two approaches Reduc t ionism implied reducingphenomena to their more basic (and hopefully independent) parts analyzshying these parts as independent entities to explain their behavior and then aggregating these explanations as an explanation of the phenomenon under study Reductionism abetted and fostered the proliferation of specialized deafness and tunnel vision in form of independentthe scienshytific disciplines
Since the fifties reductionism has been increasingly seen as an inadequate basis for science to either understand or to manipulate and control its environment An alternative approach is the systems or holistic approach This is a multi-disciplinary approach in which explanation then proceeds in terms of the role or function of the part in the Larger system(s)
Clearly heshe will be exposed to all the other types of constraints but disciplinary blinders often exist especially for those involved in their own research programs
4 A recent international agricultural research center meeting for the planniig of on-farm trials in Africa concluded that the initial descripshytion and diagnostic activity of the FSR should be rapidly implemented so that a crop season for experimentation is not lost (unpublished summaryof meeting notes ILRAD Oct 1984) Diagnosticsurvey activities and farm-level experimentation can continue simultaneously In fact the farm-level experimentation will require additional diagnosticsurvey activities to evaluate the Economic potential of the new technology
The diagnostic surveys of economists have not been nearly as useful for a comprehensive understanding of the farming and household systems as those of the anthropologists Howev-r the utility of the economist on multi-disciplinary teams to undertake and evaluate on-farm trials has been repeatedly demonstrated and is now widely if not universally acshycepted (Simmonds 1984 pp 24 71-75 125) The other social scienshytists have not yet demonstrated their capacity to work on these types of teams They appear to be in the position of defining their role a position similar to that of the economists about a decade earlier
29
6 Generally soil fertility is higher on the experiment station and the
incidence of anddiseases insects is greater than on the surrounding farms due to the repeated intensive cultivation of the same crops Howshyever on the experiment station the high levels of non-treatment inputs such as agricultural chemicals can reduce the levels of insects disshyeases and weeds to levels even lower than on the farmers fields For farmers these levels of chemical control are often not profitable
Occasionally the impact of one or two components will be estimated as with fertilization and tied ridges (a water-conservation technique) alone and in combination in the Burkina Faso FSU program
8 If the weeding is not done opportunely there can often be a yield
decline Moreover all farms in a given region will be performing these types of operations at approximately the same time Hence it will be very difficult for farmers to hire temporary labor away from their famshyily operations So the implicit value or productivity of the family labor becomes very high in these particular tasks at certain critical times
9 A more comprehensive agricultural policy analysis would include the macro effect of new technology introduction on prices as is done in agriculture sector models But because so many other structural changes are occurring at the same time this price effect is not considered to be very important at least in the initial stages of technology development
10 Those advocating these types of planting density date or other culshy
tural system change generally are expecting yield increases of only 10 to 20 This type of yield increase is very difficult for the farmer to see and could easily disappear as on-farm trials change from researcher to farmer management New agronomic system changes are expected to take time for farmers to master if a series of component part changes are implied andor timeliness of the relevant operations is also important Hence the yield differences of these minimal changes even if they truly exist will often disappear in the learning-by-doing effect
11 Once farmers are utilizing moderate purchased input levels it will be
very important to systematically evaluate the im-pact of these marginal changes especially new varieties and more intensive cropping systems
12 By removing all input subsidies and other price distortions or intervenshy
tions governments and international agencies can calculate the real resource cost of various alternative policies and ascertain their comshyparative advantage in international production This analysis assumes that the re are no differences between private and public benefits or between private and social costs Hence there are no externalities in the system
30
Removing these price and cost distortions will facilitate economic calculations and in the long run welfare gains are expected In the short run the elimination of input subsidies is expected to sharply slow down the agricultural developmenc process and to put upward presshysure on agricultural product prices and the demand for agricultural import substitutes Developed country exporters of agricultural proshyducts would be the principal beneficiaries of higher agricultural import levels in the developing countries
13 In the river valleys and irrigated regions human health constraints may be the principal factor limiting agricultural development River blindshyness has been a serious problem in many of the Burkina Faso river valshyleys An erradiation program has now at least temporarily eliminated this problem In the irrigation projects the widespread incidence of bilharzia substantially reduces labor productivity
14 By successful we mean passing the three evaluation criteria recommended
in Figure 5 Clearly agricultural scientists will also be interested in those technologies being passed on to the Extension Service for diffusion We are stressing here their interest in feedback in order to resolve those problems in their technologies which came to their attenshytion because of the results of the on-farm trials
15 We would expect that those agencies principally concerned with varietal
development would emphasize varietal testing in their on-farm trials The on-farm trials are important activities for institutions primarily concerned with breeding Nevertheless a third party such as a univershysity may be necessary in order to carry out the farm trials without preconceived notions which would emphasize certain varieties or other types of technology
16 The differences are so great between the experiment station and the
farm-level definitions of constraints and relevant research problems that one of the field agronomists from this project even proposed that all agricultural scientists working on the experiment stations in the WASAT should have some involvement with on-farm trials
CHAPTER IV
PRODUCTION CONSTRAINTS OF THE WASAT FARMING SYSTEMS
The WASAT is not as well endowed with a climate or soil resource base as most of the populated areas of the world This chapter elaborates on the major physical and resource endowment constraints of the WASAT and describes cropping patterns farmers goals and objectives and modern input use
Climate
The WASAT region is a transition zone betwien the northern desert and the humid tropics of the south There are three distinct seasons warm and dry from November to March hot and dry during March through May and hot and wet from May to October Harmattan conditions (hot dry dustshyladen winds) exist during the November to March period
Rainfall in the May to October agricultural season over the entire WASAT ranges from 200 mm in the north to 1300 mm in the south with potenshytial evapotranspiration ranging between 2200 mm in the north to 1600 mm in the south (Nicou and Charreau 1985) Since the mid-sixties annual rainshyfall has averaged 100 to 150 mm below the long-term average within each isohyet (Dancette 1977) Thus the isohyet levels delineating the climatic zones in Figure 1 would be at lower levels if more recent rainfall data were used
Rainfall is extremely variable over time and over space Nicholson (1982) states that in normal rainfall years 40 to 50 of individual weather stations experience below-normal rainfall Rainfall vaiiabiltty at individual stations ranges from 15 of the long-term average in the south to 50 in the north (Nicholson 1982) Also the number of below-normal years tend to exceed the number of wet years The long-term average rainshyfall is inflated by a few extremely wet years (Nicholson 1982) The area also has a long history of intermittent droughts and wet spells
Soil Fertility and Water Retention
Soils in the WASAT are predominantly sandy red alfisols low in organic matter and exchangeable cations with a soil texture high in sand (60-95) anO low in silt and clay content (Matlon 1985 Nicou and Charreau 1985) The soils tend to be deficient in phosphorous and nitroshygen Long fallow periods can restore soil fertility but phosphorous and nitrogen deficiency symptoms have been observed shortly after the land is put into cultivation (IFDC 1985) The phosphorous sorption capacity of WASAT soils vary widely but is generally low decreasing the agronomiceffectiveness of phosphate fertilizers (IFDC 1985) Nitrogen can be quickly exhausted in these fragile poorly buffered soils (IFDC 1985) The soils contain only weak aggregates and in many regions the soil surface
32
dries after a rain and forms a crust which restrict water infiltration and aeration (Kowal and Kassam 1978) These soil properties combined with high intensity rainfall lead to water retention and erosion problems In the dry season the soils harden making pre-plant cultivation difficult and almost impossible by traditional methods until there is a major rain (Kowal and Kassam 1978)
The quality of the land in terms of fertility and organic matter conshytent varies greatly in tarmers fields Land quality and soil water retenshytion are highly correlated with topography and distance from the compound area around the living quarters The quality and water retention ability of the soil deteriorates as one moves farther up the toposequence and away from the compound area thus requiring different cropping and management strategies by the farmer (Stoop et al 1982)
Although more productive vertisols and hydromorphic soils are found along river valleys the presence of Onchoceriasis (river blindness) in many of the river valleys has made them uninhabitable in the past
Labor Availability
Labor shortages exist in the critical planting and weeding periods (FSUSAFGRAD 1983) Planting of millet and sorghum begins with the first significant rains in May or June This is followed by rice groundnut and maize planting in combination with the sorghum and millet first weeding activities Depending on the level and distribution of rainfall fields may require resowing transplanting andor thinning Usually a second and at times a third weeding will follow Most of the plantingfirst weeding period occurs over a six-week time period with the household supshyplying the labor
When farmers were asked why they did not hire more labor for first weeding their reply was Because there is no one to hire then everyone is busy with their own weeding (FSUSAFCRAD 1983) Households do not genershyally hire labor from other households because cash and food reserves at this time of year are at their lowest and not sufficient to pay laborers a wage rate (or its equiyalent in food) equal to the opportunity cost of working their own land Also few laborers are in the labor market at this time because households have control of their family labor and utilize it for their own production needs (Kowal amp Kassam 1978)
Cropping Patterns
Cereal production is the dominant agricultural activity in the WASAT (Kowal and Kassam 1978) Regional cropping patterns in the WASAT differ-shythe most notable difference being the increasing dominance of millet over sorghum maize and root crops as soil fertility and rainfall decrease from south to north About 80 of the cropped area in the WASAT is intershycropped--cerealcereal and cereallegume are the most common (Fussell and Serafini 1985 Sawadogo et al 1985) Cowpeas are usually intercropped
33
with millet or sorghum at low densities of 1000 to 8000 plants per hectare The main cash crops in the south include cotton groundnuts and bambara nuts Small amounts of rice are grown in the bottom lands and irrigated areas
At the farm level land quality the water retention ability of the soil and labor availability are the dominant factors in farmers cropping decisions (Lang et al 1983) The staple crops of maize sorghum and millet receive the highest priority of land and labor resources Drought tolerance of the crops are matched with soil fertility and toposequence Maize which is less tolerant to drought and low soil fertility than either sorghum or millet is planted near the villagle compound on the more-fertile compound field This field ranging in size from 1 to 2 ha is used as a dump for night soil animal manure stubble and other organic material Sorghum is planted on the lower areas where there is slightly more water accumulation and where the soils are more fertile than the poorer soils further up the toposequence (Stoop et al 1982) The more abundant but poorer land is planted to millet which has the most tolerance to drought and low soil fertility Farmers say that in the worst rainfall years some millet can always be harvested
Millet and sorghum can be found growing in the next higher soil fershytility gradient than is dictated by their drought tolerance ability but maize and sorghum are rarely grown on a lower soil fertility gradient Farmers say that white sorghum is preferred because it stores twice as long as millet however more sorghum is not sown because of limited good qualshyity land and because sorghum is more vulnerable to parasites such as striga Maize and sorghum planting is thus constrained by the availability of high quality land whereas the millet area is constrained by the labor supply in the plantingfirst weeding period
In the old settlement areas cereal yields are declining in response to lower soil fertility caused by the decrease in the fallow period and lower average rainfall over the last decade (Lang et al 1984) As the soil fertility declines sorghum is being replaced by millet which yields better on the poorer soils Farmers in the village of Nedogo say that much more sorghum was planted in the village when they were young than is planted now (Ames 1986)
Farmer Goals and Objectives
Norman (1982) states that the most important differences among farming systems come from the constraints peculiar to the region and not from difshyferences in farmer aspirations (which include higher incomes effort reducshytion and risk avoidance) Farmers in older settlement areas have conshystraints and endowments which differ from those of farmers in frontier villages Farmers in the older settlement areas of Burkina where access to land is limited and soil fertility low indicated uniformly that their only goal was subsistence (FSUSAFGRAD 1983) This means harvesting enough sorghum and millet in November to feed their families until the beginning
34
of the August maize harvest that provides food during the hungry period-shythe period between ending cereal stocks and the new harvest (FSUSAFGRAD 1983) When asked to specify other goals and objectives the first priorshyity was the payment of a head tax and if resources remained meetingurgent needs which were listed as medical Other priorities were to reward the family with clothes for their work during the cropping season and to greet their in-laws or arrange marriages (FSUSAFGTAD 1983)
On the frontier where access to fallow land is notl limited half of the farmers gave subsistence oriented responses that were similar to the responses given in the older settlement areas However half of the farmshyers responded that We were once concerned only with survival but now we also think of accumulating wealth When asked What is wealth they replied cattle (FSUSAFGRAD 1983)
The survey results indicated that although farmers in the WASAT in general are subsistence oriented the goals and objectives of farmers difshyfer given different constraints This is evidenced by the total subsisshytence orientation of the sample of farmers in the old settlement villages versus the orientation of those farmers in the frontier village who indishycated wealth accumulation as one of their main goals Higher soil fertilshyity and access to land at the frontier has permitted farmers to look beyond subsistence goals This appears to demonstrate that if through technologshyical introduction some of the constraints to increasing yield in the WASAT can be alleviated the aspirations of farmers will allow technology adopshytion to occur (at some level of profit effort and risk)
Modern Input Use
Except for tuie higher rainfall regions of the Sudano-Guinean region and some river valleys credit and modern inputs such as fertilizer pestishycides herbicides and improved varieties are not widely used in the WASAT Even in these regions of higher rainfall purchased input utilization is concentrated on the export crops cotton and groundnuts FAO fertilizer statistics indicate that NPK use in eight Sahelian countries averaged less than 3 kgha as compared to 73 kgha in Asia (Matlon 1985) Less than 15 of farmers use animal traction in the WASAT (Matlon and Spencer 1985) Animal traction is used for shallow land preparation plowing and shallow weeding but utilization rates are low and farmers seldom are equipped to do more than one mechanized operation (Jaeger 1985)
Neither input nor product marketing infrastructure nor a research and extension service similar to that developed for cash crops in the WASAT pre-independence era (pre-1960) was ever developed for food crops In the Colonial period food requirements were met by the subsistence-oriented agricultural system There was little export demand for food crops such as sorghum and millet (World Bank 1985) Since the late 1960s however rapid population growth and lower food crop yields due to lower rainfall levels and declining soil fertility have substantially increased food crop
35
demand to the point where food security is not assured in most regions of the WASAT Expanding cereal imports have accompanied this trend
Even with the population pressure and increased food demand since independence an input and product marketing infrastructure for food crops has not developed Poor fertility 3oils erratic rainfall distribution and low soil water retention have led to highly variable between-year yield responses to many land-substituting inputs For example the response of fertilizer is highly dependent upon the availability of sufficient water at several critical periods Thus fertilizer utilization can be very risky Similarly iroved varieties have not dcne well under traditional manageshyment conditions (Matlon 1985)
Labor-saving animal traction technology is not widely used in the WASAT in spite of potentially high ratc of return Present internal rates of return of 10 in old settlement areas (Nedogo) and 20 to 30 at the frontier (Diapangou) have been estimated but higher rates of return could be achieved with higher utilization rates principally through expansion of the number of mechanized agricultural operations (Jaeger 1985) Most animal traction farms observed in Burkina Faso mechanized either the land preparation or the cultivation operations but not both Problems of obtaining high utilization rates stein from small size farms inapproprishyate andor incomplete set of implements poor animal health and nucrition and poor management (Jaeger and Sanders 1985) Higher utilization rates and the full benefit of mechanization are not obtained by first-time animal traction users because learning curves can be as long as five years (Jaeger and Sanders 1985) Few animal traction extension programs exist which train farmers and draft animals and thus facilitate animal traction usage
In summary low soil fertility and low soil water retention low variable and unpredictable rainfall in combination with a high evapotransshypiration rate labor shortages in the critical planting and weeding periods and the limited access to land in old settlement areas are the major physical and resource endowment constraints to increased cereal yields in most of the WASAT (Matlon 1985 Nagy et al 1985 Lang et al 1984) The physical environment makes new technology adoption in the WASAT risky The national research institutions extension and input and product marketing infrastructures to support new technology adoption and dissemination are at a low level Thus farming systems on the frontier continue to be bush-fallow systems that rely on available land and family labor inputs with little utilization of purchased inputs Farming systems in the older settled area have been shifting to more millet production and yields have declined and stabilized at low levels
Despite the current situation in the WASAT recent research findings suggest that a Malthusian perspective can be iverted Several on-farm evaluated technologies have been shown to be both agronomically and economshyically feasible in increasing cereal production and others have promise for the future A review of the proposed technologies and farm management practices for the WASAT is the subject of the next chapter
36
Footnotes
Whole farm modeling results indicate opportunity costs of labor in the
last two weeks of the plantingfirst weeding period to be 365 and 181 FGFAhr respectively for manual tillage farmers which is in contrast to the wage rate of 30 to 50 FCFAhr (Roth et al 1986)
CHAPTER V
TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT TO INCREASE CEREAL PRODUCTION IN THE WASAT
Introduction
This chapter reviews the technologies and farm management techniques that have been proposed for alleviating the production constraints in the WASAT This review uses agronomic and socio-economic data and information frGn the Purdue FSU piogram supplemented by other research from the area The FSU program conducted research in three climatic zones with village research sites in the southern portion of the Sahelo-Sudanian zone in the Sudanian zone and in the northern portion of the Sudano-Guinean climatic zone (Figure 2) Thus FSU findings and the review of most of the techshynolog0ies and recommendations reflect this orientation
As each technology is discussed it is evaluated as to the feasibility of its utilization by farmers within the short run (0 to 5 years) the intermediate run (5 to 15 years) and the long run The criteria used in the evaluation attempt to follow the strategy used by farmers in their adoption process (see Figure 5 in Chapter III and Table 1 in this chapter)
Socio-economic research suggests that farmers do not necessarily adopt technologies as a package but rather adopt single technologies or clusters of technologies en route to total package adoption (Byerlee and Hesse de Polanco 1986 Mann 1978) This is in spite of the fact that the largest impact on yields comes about when various methods (technologies) are used in combinition or as a package The farmers strategy seems to be to adopt the technologies of the package sequentially based on availability technical viability in the field economic profitability and risk conshysiderations and the resource endowment fit of the technology (ie labor and land constraints) within the farming system The technologies within the package that best exhibit the above attributes will be selected first by the farmer Other technologies will be added only after the farmer has had positive experience with the already adopted technologies and when the above attribute requirements are again met Thus while farmers can be presented with a package of technologies there seems to be an agronomically and economically logical sequence by which technological adoption will occur Information on the likely adoption pattern sequence of proposed technologies is important for focusing research extension and government programs
In this chapter available agronomic technical and socio-economic research findings are used to review and sequence the proposed technologies and farm management practices for the WASAT For example research findings from on-station and on-farm research trials are used to assess technical viablity in the field Economic budget analysis and benefit-cost
38
Table 1 Present technical and economic feasibility and time frame of proposed technologies and farm management practices for the WASAT
Technologies Present Ayronomic and Technical Feasibility Present and Farm Mgmt On-Station On-Farm Economic
Practices Research Research Feasibility Comments
Available technologies for the short run
Tied ridging (manual) +++ Very labor intensive Diguettesdikes 3 Require materials (ie rocks) Complex fertilizer ++ Risk of losing cash outlayAnimal traction 3 ++ Preconditions (see text) Mechanical ridge tier +++ ++ Requires animal traction
Potential technologies for the intermediate run Rock phosphate + - Solubility amp application problems Improved varieties ++ + - Requires upgrading of physical
environment
Potential technologies for the long run Manurecomposting +++ ++ Small and finite supply Mulch +++ ++ Small and finite supply Plowinggreen manuring ++ ++ - Poor draft animal health
Herbicides ++ ++ - Further research requiredBiol nitrogen fixation + - Further research requir Crop associations - intensification ++ + - Requires upgrading of physical - alley cropping ++ + - environment and improved
varieties Labor and management
intensive
++ High degree of feasibility--research supports a very good agronomic response or is technically very
feasible ++ Feasible--good agronomic response or technically feasible + Limited feasibility--agronomic results often inconsistent - Not feasible--little evidence to support a good agronomic response or technical feasibility
HaHighly profitable at present
= Profitable at present = Not always profitable at pres(ent
- NHot economically feasible at present
3 Not researched at the on-station level
4 Can be feasible for sole cropping but problems with mixture of broad and slender leaf plants in crop associations
39
ratios are used to determine economic profitability Research irial results and the incidence of cash outlay loss are used to assess risk Whole farm modeling and labor data analysis is used to indicate the fit of the technolshyogy within the farming systems Farmers views and comments are also incorporated
Once the technologies and farm management practices are reviewed and sequenced for either the short intermediate or long run the discussion in this chapter turns to identifying available technologies--first for the present cereal-based farming systems and second for a future more intenshysified farming system The technologies available for use in the present farming systems are then further sequenced on a recommendation domain basis
Proposed Technologies for the WASAT
The research that has been carried out in the WASAT aimed at overcomshying climatological and physical constraints and labor endowment shortages is discussed under the hicadings 1) soil fertilitywater retention techshynologies 2) labor-saving technologies 3) improved varietal research and 4) crop associations Table 1 presents a summary of the technical and ecoshynomic feasibility evaluation and a time frame for the availability of the proposed technologies and farm management practices
1) Soil FertilityWater Retention Technologies
Tied Ridges Tied ridging technology was introduced in the 1950s in West Africa (Dagg and Macartney 1968) On-station and on-farm research has shown that tied ridges significantly increase yields (Nicou and Charreau 1985 Dugue 1985 Rodriguez 1982 Ohm et al 1985a and 1985b) (see Photograph 5 page 41) FSU on farm researcher-managed (TR constructed both at and one month after planting) and farmer-managed trials (TR conshystructed 4-6 weeks after planting) have shown significant yield increases and economic returns to the additional labor required for TR on maize sorghum (Table 2 column 2) and millet (FSU 1983 Annual Report 1983 Lang et al 1984 and Ohm et al 1985a and 1985b) Manual tying of ridges is very labor intensive The manual tying of ridges constructed with animal traction requires at least 40 man hoursha (with very efficient laborers) and on average 75 man hoursha whereas constructing TR completely by hand requires at least 100 hoursha (Ohm et al 1985b) (see Photograph 6 page 41)
PJshy
-no pre-plant soil itillage no fertilization Soil scarification with animal traction~Woman planting millet by traditional manual method
-
Left fertilization right no fertilization foreground droughty area in field shy a typical view in the Central Manual construction of tiec oges in researcher-managed trial - mulch applied to somePlateau plots
D II
A
FSU researcher managed trials near Poedogo Water entrapment in depressions resulting from tied ridgesa No fertilization construction of tied ridges at plantingb No fertilization construction of tied ridges one month after plantingc No fertilization without tied ridges d Fertilization and tied ridges
Ad T7 Z
Farmer-managed plots - Left traditional method no fertilization and no tied ridging right fertilization Farmer-managed trials - Left foreground mulch applied no fertilization nor construciion of tied ridgesand tied ridging Right foreground fertilization and contruction of tied ridges one month after planting Background farmshyers traditionally managed field
43
Construction of tied ridges with mechanical ridge tier FSU researcher managed trial Background maize intershycropped with cowpeas fertilized with construction of tiedridges at planting Foreground maize intercropped with cowshypeas no fertilization nor construction of tied ridges
43 - a
Table 2 Economic analysis of farmer-managed trials of sorghum with fertilizer and tied ridges Nedogo and Diapangou 1983 and 1984
1 Treatments
C TR F TRF Nedogo 1984 Manual Traction
Grain Yield kgha 2 157 416 431 652
Yield Gain Above Control kgha - 259 274 495
Gain in Net Revenue FCFAha 3 - 23828 13275 33607
Returnhr of Additional Labor FCFA4 238 140 172- Farmers Whio Would Have Lost Cash - 0 27 9
1aedogo 1983 Manual Traction Grain Yield kgha 430 484 547 851 Yield Gain Above Control kgha - 54 117 421 Gain in Net Revenue FCFAha - 3510 -2285 17475 Returnhr of Additional Labor FCFA - 35 - 90 Farmers Who Would Have Lost Cash - 0 66 0
Diapangou 1984 Donkey Traction Grain Yield kgha 498 688 849 1133 Yield Gain Above Control kgha - 190 351 635 Gain in Net Revenue FCFAha - 17480 20359 46487 Returnhr of Additional Labor FCFA - 233 214 273 Farmers Who Would Have Lost Cash shy 0 21 0
Diapangou 1983 Donkey Traction Grain Yield kgha 481 522 837 871 Yield Gain Above Control kgha - 71 356 390 Gain in Net Revenue FCFAha - 6532 20819 23947Returnhr of Additional Labor FCFA - 87 219 141 Farmers Who Would Have Lost Cash - 0 16 12
Source Ohm et al 19851) and Lang et al 1984 Similar results were obtained at three other sites in Burkina
1 C = Control (no tied ridges or fertilizer) TR = tied ridges constructed at second weeding F = fertilizer 100 kgha 14-23-15 applied in band 10-15 cm from row at first weeding plus 50 gla urea applied in pockets 10-15 cm from seed pockets at second weeding
2 The standard error and CV (in parentheses) starting with Nedogo 1984 and conshy
tinUing through to Diapangon 1983 are 75 (43) 121 (29) 46 (18) and 43 (22) respectively Net Revenue = yield gaiii x grain price (65 and 92 FCFAkg in 1983 and 1984) minus fertilizer cost (62 and 78 CFAkg for 14-23-15 and 60 and 66 FCFAkg for urea in 1983 and 1984--fertili C prices are subsidized 40 to 50) Includes interest rate charge for six months at rate of 15 1 US dollar = 381 FCFA in 1983 and 436 FCFA in 1984 Net Revenue + additional labor of tied ridging and fertilizer application Manual and donkey traction require 100 and 75 hours of additional laborha for tied ridging respectively Fertilizer application requires 95 additional hoursha
44
Tied ridge construction has the advantage that no cash outlay is reshyquired if family labor is utilized However a survey of technology adoption by farmers in FSU villages indicated that the number of farmers constructing tied ridges and the hectarage of tied ridge construction outshyside the trial plots were small--an average of 032 hectaresfarmer with the largest being 10 hectare (Ohm et a] 1985b) When questioned farmers indicated that thev would like to construct more TR but they did not have sufficient family Iabo I ir ing from an outside labor pool is limited at the time tied ridges mu be coumstructed because the active labor force of all households is fully occupied with work in their own fields Linear programming representative farm models (Table 3 column 2) also indicate that labor availab i i ty const rainos prevent the manual tying of animal traction constructed ridges from beilng ut ilized on the entire farm
Another limitation is that tied ridging does not work well on sandy soils because the ties tend to break down in heavy rain Nevertheless aim estimated 40 of the presently cultivated land in Burkina and 15 in Mali appears to be suitable for tied ridging This represents 12 million hecshytares (Burns 1985) Tied ridges have been shown to be both agronomically and economicaly feasih Ic as a technology applicable at the present time to increase cereal product ion in the WASAT However the labor constraint requires a search for labor- saving technoloies
I)iguettesdikes There are various water conservationerosion methods in addition to tied ridges that are or could be used in the WASAT The construction of diguettes although not as effective in retaining water as tied ridges is a water conservation method that has been investigated Diguettes are barriers 10 to 15 cm high mainly made of rocks and placed on field contour lines 10 to 50 meters apart The barriers are permeable ard slow rainfall runoff to allow for increased infiltration They have imshyproved water retention and signiicantly increased yields in the norther[ (Yatenga) region of Burkina (Wright 1985) This technology has the advarshytage that it can be constructed in off peak labor periods with family labor and is not as labor intensive as tied ridging However rocks (the prinshycipal material) or other material in some regions are not available to conshystruct the diguettes Economic analysis indicates that the returns in the first year alone are greater than the labor bill (at the going wage rate) of constructing the diguettes In Burkina Faso local government agencies have constructed large dikes and barriers to control water flow at the village level Although diguettes and other forms of water retention and control require further research thme large dikes and diguettes are technologies that could be used at present
Complex Themical Fertilizers Under on-station and on-farm conditions significant yield increases for maize sorghum and millet have been obtained using complex mineral fertilizers (Pieri 1985 Ohm et al 1985b FSU Annual Reports) Yield response to fertilizer is however highly variable between sites and years (Spencer 1985) Nevertheless some researchers sugsest that continuous cropping using chemical fertilizers is potentially possible in the WASAT (see Pier 1985 p 77 for a literature review
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
45
Table 3 Whole farm modeling analysis of tied ridging with donkey tracshytion Central Plateau Burkina Faso
Tied-Ridging Technology Traditional Tied with Machine Management Tied by Two One
Variable (donkey) Hand Passes Pass -------------------- hectares---------------------
Total Area Cultivated 55 56 56 55 Maize
Traditional 20 - - -With Tied Ridges 20 20 20
Red Sorghum Traditional 60 - - -With Tied Ridges 60 60 60
White Sorghum Traditional 80 51 With Tied Ridges 29 80 80
Millet Traditional 318 315 315 184 With Tied Ridges - 33 164
Peanuts 76 85 53 43
Total Cereals Production ---------------------- kgs------------------------Per Househol 2103 2436 2651 2737 Per Resident 150 174 189 196
Net Farm Income 3 000s FCFA-------------------Per Household 2153 2462 2535 2622 Per Worker 308 352 362 375
1 Labor times of 75 man hoursha for tying of the ridges by hand 20 man
hoursha to machine tie with two passes and 2 aan hours to machine tie with one pass Yield estimates in kgsha for traditional practices and the technical intervention of tied ridging are as follows maize (1090 to 1730) red sorghum (672 to 940) white sorghum (472 to 660) and milshylet (320 to 415) 1985 fertilizer and grain prices were used
2 Based on 14 residentshousehold Annualized cost of 4400 FCFA for tied-ridging machine subtracted in colshyumns 3 and 4 Based on 7 active workershousehold
46
and references) Decreases in yield and fertilizer efficiency however have been observed after two to five years of continuous cropping where organic matter has not been incorporated into the soil (Pieri 1985)
In Burkina Faso on-farm researcher-managed trials indicate that the response of maize yields to tertilizer on the relatively high fertilitycompound soils was not economically profitable (1982 FSU Annual Report 1983) On-farm farmer-managed trials indicated that fertilizer can be profitable when using fertilizer alone on sorghum (Table 2 column 3) There is however considerable risk for the farmer of losing the cash outshylay when fertilizer is used alone as demonstrated by the percentage of farmers who would have lost cash in Table 2 column 3 Both yield and profitability substantially inicrease however when tied ridges and fertilshyizer are used in combination as indicated in Table 2 column 4 Also as shown in column 4 the risk of losing the cash outlay from the purchase of fertilize substantially decreases when fertilizer and TR are used in comshybination Fertilizer in combination with TR for millet on millet land has also been shown to be profitable with only a modera e risk of farmers losshying the fertilizer cash outlay (Ohm et al 1985a)
A survey of four FSU villages in Burkina indicated a range of fertilshyizer use )n cereals from zero farmers in the sample of the northern village of Bangasse to 33 of the farmers in the southern village sample from Poedogo which has better land and higher rainfall In the more northern region fertilizer use is riskier due to lower and more erratic rainfall Average hectarage fertilized in the villages that used fertil zer ranged from 034 ha at Nedogo to 3 ha at Poedogo (Ohm et al 1985b) Although the use rate per hectare was not established field staff indicated it was substantially lower than the 100 kga of 14-23-15 fertilizer applied to most of the FSU trials in the villages
The evidence to date on fertilizer use in the WASAT suggests that comshyplex fertilizers are a technolegy that can be used at present but yields are highly variable and the incidence of fertilizer cash outlay loss by farmers is high unless combined with a water retention technique such as TR The risk of losing cash decreases in the higher soil fertility and higher rainfall areas Empirical evidence also suggests that fertilizer use or water retention techniques such as TR when used alone can be economshyically feasible but that when used together the profitability substanshytially increases Moreover the number of farmers losing cash decreases subFstantially as compared with the fertilizer only strategy
Indigenous Rock Phosphate The benefits of using indig ous rock phosphate deposits in the WASAT are potentially appealling in terms of logistcs transportation cost advantages and foreign exchange savings Workable deposits occur in Senegal Mali Niger Togo Benin Nigeria and Burkina Faso On-station and on-farm trials have however found the rock phosphate to have solubility problems (IFDC 1985 Pieri 1985) The comshybination of the low P release in a water-soluble form that is readily available for use by plants aid the low I-sorption capacity of the WASAT soils have resulted in poor agronomic performance from rock phosphate applications There is little or no potential for direct application of WASAT rock phosphate with the possible exception of the Mali (Tilemsi) and Niger (Tahoual) deposits (IFDC 1985)
47
Two methods are used to increase the agronomic effectiveness of rock phosphate One method is to highly granulate the rock and the other method is acidulation Even when highly granulated the agronomic effrectiveness is low and several years of consecutive applications are required before significant yield increases are observed (IFDC 1985 FSU Annual Reports) After several years of application benefit-cnst ratios were still lower than other sources of phosphorous (IFDC 1985)
Four years of FSU on-farm farmer-managed trials in Burkina Faso using highly granulated Burkina rock phosphate (100 kgha rock phosphate with 50 kgha urea applied each year on the same plots) also indicated low benefitshycost ratios Benefit-cost ratios of less than one with a 50 subsidized rock phosphate price were obtained (Unpublished FSU data) In the same experiment benefit-cost ratios of 13 were obtained from a rock phosphate tied ridging treatment but the benefit-cost ratio decreased to 069 when unsubsidized prices were used FSU cooperator farmers did not like using the rock phosphate due to its poor agronomic performance and application problems due to its highly granulated form
IFDC has developed two processes for the partial acidulation of rock phosphate Acidulation with sulfuric or phosphoric acid converts the calshycium phosphate into a more soluble form Research on the agronomic effecshytiveness of partially acidulated rock phosphate in the WASAT has given conshyflicting results (Batiano et al 1985) Inconsistent results were obtained by FSU with 50 acidulated Burkina rock phosphate in a one year on-farm researcher-managed trial with sorghum and millet (Ohm et al 1985a) The partially acidulated rock phosphate is also highly granulated giving rise to farmer application problems
Few economic studies of acidulated rock phosphate are available for the WASAT When compared with single superphosphate the relative economic performance of acidulated rock phosphate on millet in Niger is generally lower but is not consistent across sites or years (IFDC 1985)
To be agronomically and economically feasible the solubility problems of rock phosphate will have to be overcome The present effectiveness of acidulation requires further on-farm testing Once rock phosphate became agronomically and economically feasible fertilizer plants and distribution networks would require several years to develop A source of sulfuric or phosphoric acid at economically feasible prices is also required (Pieri 1985) Thus rock phosphate appears to be a technology most appropriate in the intermediate run after the technical problems of solubility and applishycation are resolved economically at the farm level
Animal Manure and Compost Manure and compost are already being used effectively on fields near the compound although application and composting techniques could be more efficient (Pieri 1985 Table 11) The principal constraint to the increased use of manuring and composting is their finite supply Few organic waste materials are left once the household and animal feed requirements are met Manure availability will increase only when animals are penned to make collection possible However cattle are grazed on fallow land away from the living quarters and the labor involved in conshyfined rearing of animals is too great Cattle are also entrusted to herdshyers because of feed shortages close to the village As fallow land
48
declines in the old settlement areas it will be increasingly difficult to support cattle near the village and in the area in general
While animal manure and composting are agronomically and economically feasible for use around the compound area at present they do not representfarm management practices that will substantially increase cereal producshytion in the WASAT in the short and intermediate run because of their finite supply Their potential will only be realized in the long run when the farming system evolves from the dominant cereal-based system to a more intensive cereal-foragecash crop system that is able to support more liveshystock near the village
Mulch Crop residue mulch can reduce rainfall runoff and increase water infiltration but sorghum amid millet stalks in raw or compost form mayadd little to soil fertility (Pieri 1985 p 91) As with manure the principal limiting factor of mulch is its finite supply--especially in the northern half of the WASAT The demand for its uses as animal feed fuel and construction materia] leaves most fields bare by planting time and even when it is not all used the prevalent custom is to burn it Moreover crop residues (3 to 5 Tha) are not sufficient by themselvEs to increase soil fertility and writer retention capacity appreciably In addition applications of mulch (10 Tha) can give rise to nitrogen deficiency which can only be overcome by composting or the addition of nitrogen (Pieri 1985)
Plowinggreen manuring Significant yield increases from on-station and n-farm research have been observed from deep ploughing and tillagepractices which change the structure of the soil allowing better root establishment and improved water infiltration and storage (Nicou and Charreau 1985 I)ugue 1985) Most tillage in the WASAT is done by shalshylow manual cultivation (85 of farmers) or by shallow animal traction cultivation Little pre-plant ploughing or tillage is done because of the need to plant soon after a rain (within 2 to 3 days) The soil is genershyally too hard and the animals too weak at this time of year for effective ploughing to take place before a major rain
Green manuring can also increase the fertility of the soil and add to its water retention capacity (Pieri 1985) However this practice also requires deep ploughing to incorporate the plants into the soil To be effective pre-plant and deep ploughing and green manure incorporation all require substantial draft power which can only be given by healthy well fed double ox teams This type of draft power will be available only in the long run when the farming systems can support high level-maintenance of the draft animals
2) Labor Saving Technologies
Animal Traction An estimated fifteen percent of farms in the WASAT use animal traction--mainly for transport shallow weeding or shallow land-preparation plowing (Matlon 1985) (see Photograph 2 page 40) Farmshyers in general use only one mechanized operation rather than using animal traction for all the agricultural activities of soil preparation plantingand weeding (Jaeger 1985) To date animal traction usage in the WASAT can be characterized as iand using (extensive) Some studies have reported
49
significant farm area expansion from animal traction usage Animal tracshytion can perform weeding 6 to 7 times faster than manual weeding (Jaeger and Sanders 1985) Increased yield effects have been reported in the literature (mainly from ploughing) but the yield effects are generally small (Binswanger 1978)
In spite of low animal traction adoption in the WASAT at present it is a technology that is feasible for use in the short run Animal traction can be made more economically attractive to farmers Present internal rates of return can be doubled and tripled by higher utilization rates (Jaeger 1985) Higher utilization rates can be achieved by increasing the number of mechanized operations In the past many animal traction proshygrams have failed in the WASAT because utilization rates were not suffishyciently high Returns to first time users of animal traction in the first years of operation are generally low because learning curves can be as long as five years and is a deterrent to first time users (Jaeger and Sanders 1985) First time users can obtain the full benefit of nechanizatior quicker through farmer and animal extension training and an improved market for trained draft animals
Mechanical Ridge Tier To respond to the labor constraint in conshystructing tied ridges the IITASAFGRAD Agronomy Program designed a protoshytype mechanical ridge tier (MRT) (Figure 6) for animal traction (Wright and Rodriguez 1985) (see Photographs 7 and 9 pages 41 42) With FSU and IITA SAFGRAD collaboration ihe MRT was field tested as part of Burkinas 1985 national farming systems program (Nagy et al 1986a) Yield levels compare favorably between ridges constructed with animal traction and tied manually and those ridges made with the MRT When the two pass method is used (first ridging and then using the MRT) the MRT substantially reduces the labor requirements from an average 75 man hoursha for the manual tyingof animal traction ridges to 20 man hoursha The MRT operation requires only 2 to 3 additional hours above ridging alone when ridging and tying with the MRT are done simultaneously (one pass) Donkeys must be strong and healthy for the one pass method Oxen which are mainly available on the frontier clearly have an advantage and can easily do both operations simultaneously
Linear programming representative farm models indicate that while available labor constrains the tying of ridges manually to 11 ha (Table 3 column 2) the MRT can tie 32 ha when using the one-pass method (Table 3 column 4) and is highly profitable The profitability is further increased with the addition of fertilizer (Table 4) although hectarage under tied ridges decreases to 09 for manual tying and to 30 with the MRT because labor is required for fertilizer application Budget analysis also indishycates the profitability of the MRT urder vaiious prices and goodbad year weather scenarios (Nagy et al 1986a)
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10
9
3 Latch lever 8 30 cm ridger that allows soil to flow over the top
4 Rubber band (inner tube strip) 9 Handles of houe Manga (FAQ donkey weecer) 5 Latch adjuster (for correct angle and to 10 Bicycle cable to brake lever
compensate for wear in bearings shovels and latch)
Figure 6 The ITASAFGRAD mechanical ridge tier (donkey version)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
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Table 4 Whole farm modeling analysis of a tied ridging-fertilization technology combination with donkey traction Central Plateau Burkina Faso
Tied-Ridging Technology Traditional Tied with Machine Management Tied by Two One
Variable (donkey) Hand Passes Pass ------------------- hectares---------------------
Total Area Cultivated 55 56 57 56 Maize
Traditional 20 With Tied Ridges 20 15 15
Red Sorghum Traditional 60 With Tied Ridges 60 68 60
White Sorghum Traditional 80 70 With Tied Ridges 10 80 95
Millet Traditional 318 315 318 188 With Tied Ridges 05 127
Peanuts 76 86 79 71
Total Cereals Production -------------------- kgs Per Househol 2103 2604 2970 3354 Per Resident 10 186 212 240
Net Farm Income3 000s FCFA-------------------Per Household 2153 2532 2732 2964 Per Worker 308 362 390 423
ource Nagy et al 1985 Based un application of 100 kgha 14-23-15 fertilizer at planting and 50 kgha urea four weeks after planting (20 man hoursha labor requirement for each application) Labor times of 75 man hoursha for tying of the ridges by hand 20 man hoursha to machine tie with two passes and 2 man hoursha to machine tie in one pass Yield estimates in kgsha for trashyditional practices and the technological interventions of fertilization and tied ridges in combination are as follows maize - not fertilized (1090 to 1730) red sorghum (672 to 1236) white sorghum (472 to 913) and millet (320 to 660) 1985 fertilizer and grain prices were used Based on 14 residentshousehold
4 Annualized cost of 4400 FCFA for machine subtracted in columns 3 and 4 Based on 7 active workershousehold
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Information from farmer questionnaires and field staff indicates that the major problem with the MRT is its awkwardness However most farmers were able to operate the MRT fairly efficiently after 15 to 30 minute- in the field Several engineering features require redesigning but the overshyall consensus of the field trials is that the MRT or a machine similar to the MRT can be used at present not only as a labor-saving device but also as a yield-increasing technology
Herbicides Herbicides could be used to decrease the labor constraint in the peak-labor-demand plantingweeding period (Spencer 1985) At present acquiring herbicides in the WASAT is difficult and little research has been done to tailor herbicides to WASAT conditions Both broad leaf and slender leaf plants as well as various trees are grown in association in the same field and these are sensitive to different herbicides
Economic analysis in northern Nigeria (Ogungbile 1980) suggests that weeding either by animal traction or manually is more profitable than herbicides at present Herbicides will find an increasing role in the WASAT only when cropping intensities are increased to the point where they require more intensive weeding (Norman 1982) and when the opportunity cost of labor substantially increases (Ruthenberg 1980)
3) Improved Varietal Pesearch
Few improved varieties of food crops are used by farmers in the WASAT Significant yield increases for varietal improvement from on-station reshysearch have been observed but a large yield gap between on-station and onshyfarm yields exists especially for the staple crops of sorghum and millet Experimental results suggest that the cereal y6 eld gap is less for local than for improved cultivars (Matlon 1985) Yields from FSU on-farm trials in Burkina for improved maize red and white sorghum and cowpeas rarely exceeded the yields of local varieties of the traditional management treatments (FSU Annual Reports)
Analysis by ICRISAT of sorghum and millet cultivars indicate that the on-station selection procedures under a high management environment (high fertility tillage and water management) have resulted in elite cultivars being more management responsive than local varieties but at the same time inferior at lower management levels (Matlon 1985) This suggests that breeding objectives should include screening and selection procedures that can provide cultivars which also exploit moderate management levels and that there is a need to hasten the process of variety evaluation onto onshyfarm trials (Matlon 1985) With the current selection procedures the full impact from varietal development will only be felt in the WASAT when farmers utilize a higher degree of improved management practices--practices such as an MRT-fertilizer combination--which would not take place until the intermediate run Also even if change ocur in the present breeding objectives leading to the development of new varieties able to exploit moderate management levels these vayleties will only be available in the intermediate run (five to ten years)
4) Crop Associations
Experiment station studies of different crop associations have received increased attention in the WASAT over the past 15 years (Fussell
53
and Serafini 1985) Significant aggregate biological yields from intensishyfying cereal-cowpea associations have been obtained in research station trials (Fussell and Serafini 1985 Muleba1985) Increased legume densishyties however are normally accompanied by serious insect infestation probshylems requiring pesticide spraying The role that biological nitrogen fixashytion has played in obtaining the increased aggregate yields in cerealshylegume associations in the WASAT is yet to be determined (Fussell and Serifini 1985) Studies have shown however that under WASAT water stress and mineral deficiency conditions some legumes may contribute to nitrogen losses (Pieri 1985)
On-farm researcher-iianaged trials indicate that the most limiting facshytors in the performance of cereal-cowpea association intensification are soil moisture and fertility (Ohm et al 1985a) Under favorable condishytions of moisture and fertility it is profitable to increase cowpeadensity but under less favorable conditions the present practice of the farmers seems to be more dependable and profitable (Ohm et al 1985a)Under improved management (tied ridges fertilizer and pesticides) cowpeadensities somewhat higher than those currently used by farmers appear to be economically viable (Ohm et al 1985a) There are however instances where increased cowpea density has decreased sorghum yields (Matlon 1983)
Socio-economic studies indicate that farmers are primarily concerned with maintaining cereal yields and that modifications in cowpea densities and cultural practices that decrease cereal yield will not be adopted bythe farmer (Sawadogo et al 1985 Diehl and Sipkens 1985 Matlon 1983)Labor data analysis indicates that intensified cereal-cowpea associations substantially increase planting and weeding requirements (Matlon 1983)Depending on the planting date intensification can change the distribution of labor demand and reduce the amount of labor required for final weedingbecause of the cowpeas competition with the weeds Although returns to labor can be greater under intensification farmers do cite lower cereal yields and increased labor demands as the prime reasons for not intensifyshying (Matlon 1983)
Limited research has been carried out on cropping associations involvshying trees in the WASAT Alley cropping--food crops grown in the alleyformed by rows of leguminous shrubs or trees--could form one basis for changing traditional shifting cultivation practices (Kang et al 1984)Alley cropping does possess many potential advantages such as providingmulch firewood biologically fixed nitrogen animal feed and erosion conshytrol However it is very management-intensive and has not been thoroughly researched in the WASAT
Some intensification of cereal and legume crops can take place in the intermediate run once the physical environment is improved but significant crop intensification alley cropping and biological nitrogen fixation would contribute their greatest potential in the long run after farmers first increase their cereal production
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Sequencing of Technologies and Farm Management Practices in the WASAT
With falling cereal yields and the decline of the bush-fallow system in high density population areas the first necessity is to develop new technology systems to increase cereal yields Based upon the information of the proposed technologies as to their present agronomic technical and economic feasibility (Table 1) the overall sequential pattern of technoshylogical adoption would be to use the technologies available in the short run to alleviate the soil fertilitvwater retention constraints ie fertilizer tied ridges diguettes and dikes This would require alleviatshying the labor constraint in the peak-labor-demand period of plantingweedshying through available labor-saving technologies ie animal traction and the MRT
Once the agronomic environment has been improved new variety developshyment will be facilitated The development of these varieties will take time and be available in the intermediate run as compared with the more immediate availability of the tied ridgingfertilization technology combishynation Crop association intensification and diversification and other long run technologies and farm management techniques would then be incorshyporated as they become technically feasible Thus the overall sequential pattern of technology adoption can be dichotomized into a) technologies for the present cereal based farming systems and b) technologies and farm manshyagement practices for the Euture (intensified) farming systems
Technologies for the Present Farming Systems
Production constraints household endowments and household decision making characteristics are heterogeneous in the WASAT leiding to differshyences in the technology requirements and adoption patterns of various households Thus the delineation of recommendation domains can aid the targeting of research extension and government policy and programs This section of the chapter first delineates a set of recommendation domains based on production constraints household characteristics and resource endowments The technologies available in the short run (Table 1) are then sequenced as to the probable adoption pattern within each recommendation domain
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Recommendation Domains Based on Production Constraints
The labor endowment shortage is homogeneous throughout the WASAT but access to land is not Old settlement high-population-density areas exhibit limited to zero fallow rotation due to the limited access to land In general land quality and yield in the older settlement areas is lower than on the frontier which has access to land ind utilizes the traditional bush-fallow system Both intensification and extensification options are available on the frontier whereas only the intensification options are available in the old settlement areas due to the limited access to land Thus technology adoption choices are different in the two areas and a delineation can be made on a population density basis as follows
A Old settlementhigh-population-density areas (ie Central Plateau Burkina Faso)
B Frontierlow-population-density areas
Recommendation domains can also be made on an agroclimatic basis Higher rainfall and relatively higher soil fertility in a general north to south direction within the WASAT vary technology requirements and expected adoption patterns
Recommendation Domains Based on Household Characteristics and Endowments
Farmers have been found to be mainly risk averse (Binswanger 1980 Dillon and Scandizzo 1978) However the risk aversion of farmers within a group may range between high risk aversion and low risk avoidance depending on their initial endowments ie wealth Theoretically the risk that a household will assume is positively correlated with household wealth-shywealth being largely embodied in livestock holdings (mainly cattle) Wealth can also be considered positively correlated with the ability of a household to invest in purchased inputs or absorb larger losses in a poor rainfall season Household characteristics are further delineated into the type cf traction (manual or animal) presently being used This leads to the following recommendation domains Ysed on the household characteristics of risk wealth and type of traction
I A high risk aver3e low wealth manual tillage household--may only adopt low riT technologies and has limited ability to buy purshychased inputs
II A low risk averse high wealth animal traction household--chance of technology adoption higher due to the greater ability to buy purchased inputs
III A low risk averse high wealth manual traction household--chance of technology adoption higher due to greater ability to buy purshychased inputs but has not yet made the transition to animal traction
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Six recommendation domains are presented in Table 5 based upon the household characteristics and population density (access to land) typoloshygies described earlier The recommendation domains are for the 500 to 900 mm annual rainfall regions The potential sequential adoption patterns of the available technologies in the short run for the present cereal based farming systems--complex fertilizers tied ridging animal traction and the MRT--are presented in Table 5 for each recommendation domain The sequencing patterns of the technologies for each recommendation domain are based on the previous discussion of farmers adoption strategies where technologies are adopted singly or in clusters in a logical agronomic and economR sequence This is discussed for each recommendation domain below
IA High Risk Averse Central Plateau Manual Households
With limited access to land limited ability to buy purchased inputs and high risk aversion the opportunities for the household in the first stage of technology adoption are to manually construct tied ridges and use other water retention techniques such as diguettes which use available famshyily labor Linear programming (LP) results indicate that up to 1 hectare could be put in tied ridges manually by the average household which would increase production and income (Table 3 column 1) Also survey results indicated that households used tied ridging at FSU village sites and did tied ridging between 13 and 1 hectare per household (Ohm et al 1985a) Tied ridging is agronomically feasible and economically profitable For this highly risk averse group tied ridging is especially attractive beshycause there is no ris 5of losing a cash outlay with only family labor being utilized for ridging
The next step in the sequence of technology adoption would involve a cash outlay Fertilizer is an option on the land in tied ridges espeshycially in the more southern regions of the WASAT where rainfall is higher Fertilizer use although profitable (Table 2 column 4 Nedogo) would be limited by the small hectarage under tied ridges and the tendency of this group of farmers to avoid risks
Animal traction in combination with the MRT would seem to be the next step in the sequence This combination is not only labor saving but yield increasing as well The addition of the MRT to the machinery complement increases the internal rate of return from 10 for animal traction fWeedshying) alone (Jaeger 1984) to between 30-40 on the Central Plateau LP analysis (Table 3 column 4) indicates that the combination of animal tracshytion and the MRT enables the construction of tied ridges on up to 65 of available cereal land on the average or representative farm and increases total cereals production and income above that of traditional practices and
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Table 5 Recommendation domains and likely sequential adoption patterns of technologies in the WASAT
1 2Household Central Plateau Frontier Characteristics A B
I High risk aversion 1 Manual tied ridges-diguettes 1 Animal traction 3
Low wealth endowment 2 Animal traction-MRT 2 MRT Manual traction 3 Fertilizer 3 Fertilizer
4 Improved varieties 4 Improved varieties
II Low risk aversion 1 Fertilizer 1 MRT High wealth endowment 2 MRT 2 Fertilizer Animal traction 3 Improved varieties 3 Improved varieties
III Low risk aversion 1 Fertilizer 1 Animal traction High wealth endowmont 2 Animal traction 2 MRT Manual traction 3 MRT 3 Fertilizer
4 Improved varieties 4 Improved varieties
1 High density population limited access to land and in general lower quality land than the Frontier
2 Low population density access to land and in generel higher quality land than the Central Plateau
T MRT - the mechanical ridge tier
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17
manual tied ridging With the increase in income households would then be in a better position to purchase fertilizers Internal rates of return for an animal traction-MRT-fertilizer combination range from 25-30 and increase production and income over the animal traction-MRT combination (contrast Table 3 column 4 with Table 4 column 4)
IB High Risk Averse Frontier Manual Households
Households included in this category could follow the manual tied ridgingdiguette regime of Type IA households on maize compound land but may find it as profitable and less labor constraining to maintain the bushshyfallow system for sorghum and millet and use animal traction The present internal rate of return using donkey and ox traction has been estimated to be 31 and 21 respcCtively for a frontier area but the rates of return can be doubled with increased utilization thus making the technology very profshyitable (Jaeger 1984) Next in the sequential adoption pattern would be the use of the MRT The use of the MRT by households may not be used conshycurrently with the introduction of animal traction but the incentive for its utilization would increase as population pressure increased and land became more scarce With internal rates of return of 35-40 for donkey traction and 25-30ior ox traction mechanical ridge tying at the frontier could be expected The third step in the sequence would be the addition of fertilizer
IlA Low Risk Averse Central Plateau Animal Traction Households
Animal traction households exhibiting a lower risk aversion and a greater ability to buy purchased inputs will likely find fertilizer as the best option particularly in the more southern areas of the WASAT with higher rainfall The option of using animal traction to extensify is not available because of the limited access to land and thus the next technolshyogy in the sequential adoption pattern would be to use animal traction to intensify using the MRT
IIB Low Risk Averse Frontier Manual Households
As in IB the extensification option of using animal traction will continue to dominate until increased population pressure limits access to land thus making the intensification option of using the MRT more attracshytive--especially in the northern areas of the WASAT where the rainfall is more limited and Aserratic soil fertility declines fertilizer will become more profitable
IIIA Low Risk Averse Central Plateau Manual Households
Households in this category are expected to choose fertilizer over manual tying of ridges because they have the ability to purchase it and are less averse to taking risk Manual tied ridging could also be an option at first but presented with the opportunity of using an animal traction-MRT combination households would probably choose the latter
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IIIB Low Risk Averse Frontier Manual Tillage Households
Although these households would not be averse to using the land-subshystituting inputs a higher payoff is likely to come from extensification using animal traction in the initial stages of technology introduction As population pressure on the higher quality land increases increased utilshyization of the MRT and fertilizer would be expected
In summary different sequential adoption patterns exist for the difshyferent recommendation domains Adoption is expected to be more rapid by those in the low risk aversehigh wealth categories Given the present levels of research exteksion and government program support some groups such as the high risk averselow wealth old settlement farmers may never adopt any of the technologies
Tied ridging chemical fertilizer and animal traction have all been potentially available to farmers in the WASAT over the last two decades Yet little adoption of these technologies for cereal production has taken place Our hypothesis for this lack of adoption is that while the indivishydual technologiuts may be technically and economically feasible the ecoshynomic impact of individual technologies for the level of risk involved has not been sufficiently high Both farm trials and whole-farm modeling indishycate a substantially higher impact from the simultaneous introduction of all three technologies including the MRT The combined introduction of these technologies alleviates the soil fertility soil water and labor constraints and provides tilarge economic incentive at low levels of risk
The requirement th t the available technologies be introduced simulshytaneously to satisfy farmers risk and profit levels before they will be adopted is in conflict with the empirical finding that farmers adopt innoshyvations sequentially An alternative is to wait until new technologies are developed that satisfy the high profit-low risk criteria so that they will be adopted individually in a sequential manner Another alternative is to use support programs in view of the pressing nature of the problems in the WASAT Support trograms would have to take into consideration the sequenshytial nature of adoption while trying to achieve total package adoption as quickly as possible Animal traction farmers may adopt an MRTfertilizer package simultaneously given high economic incentives and support programs but clearly for manual farmers (the majority) the combined introduction of animal traction the MRT and a fertilizer package all at once in one year is too great
The main thrust of the support program should be to select the first technology within each recommendation donain (Table 5) and provide economic incentives that make the level of risk of the technology acceptable to farmers For example the first technology in the sequence of recommendashytion domains IB and IIB (Table 5) is animal traction Support programs
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would be required to deal with the pre-conditions for animal traction adopshytion (as discussed in Chapters IV and V) and provide adequate economic incentives At a later period when farmers are acquainted with animal traction support programs would deal with the next technology in the sequence for each recommendation domain Following this procedure will reduce the adoption time between technologies within the package The supshyport programs should lead to the adoption of a soil fertility-water retention-labor saving technology package within each recommendation domain Without support programs technology adoption of the present techshynologies available to the WASAT will be very slow with some farmers--in particular the high risk averselow wealth farmers--not adopting any of the technologies
Technologies for Future Farming Systems
The long-run goal of technology introduction for future farming sysshytems is to change the upgraded dominant cereal-based farming system into a more intensified cereal-foragelivestock-cash crop farming systemInformation on the agronomic and economic feasibility of the technologies that may come into play in future farming systems is incomplete making it impossible to sequence the individual technologies as was done for technolshyogies available for present farming systems
Improvements in the present cereal-based farming systems will set the stage for a more intensive crop association and rotation regime Given the yield increase from the fertilizertied ridgesimproved variety combinashytion an estimation has been made that moderate cereal surpluses could be expected in the WASAT in the future with the adoption of these technologies (Savadogo 1986) This would make it possible to shift some production out of cereals and utilize available land labor and capital on more intensive cerealforagecash crop rotations--especially cereallegume rotations that could provide biological nitrogen fixation and reduce the costs of and dependency upon outside sources of nitrogen
Feed availability would increase livestock numbers and improve animal traction not only by better nutrition but also by shifting to more oxen power and away from the lower draft donkey power that dominates low qualityforage farming systems This would mean better crop residue incorporation and green manuring opportunities With increased livestock numbers in proximity to the household more manure would be available Although farmshyers would initially adopt these technologies sequentially the process of adoption would be an iterative one as the more intensive use of one techshynology allows a more intensive use of another ie increased forageallows more cattle to be kept near the compound resulting in more manure which in turn may allow more forage hectarage
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Footnotes
It would be more appropriate to measure risk in terms of a time series
variance (ie over many years) as opposed to a cross sectional varishyance method (ie over many farmers in one year) as used here Three years of data make it difficult to undertake a time series risk analyshysis For a textbook treatment of risk analysis see Anderson et al 1977
2 Tied ridges (TR) are small depressions made between crop rows either by
hand tillage or by a combination of animal traction and hand tillage When constructed by hand depressions 32 cm long x 24 cm wide x 16 cm deep spaced 1-12 meters apart are made between the rows When conshystructed with animal traction the fields are first ridged with a cultishyvator (houe manga) which is equipped with a middle sweep to create a furrow This is then followed by hand tillage to make a 16 cm high ridge perpendicular to the furrow every one to two meters The depresshysions catch and hold water after a rain and increase water infiltration and retention Due to the larger water holding capacity of animal tracshytion tied ridges water retention ability is greater than that of manually tied ridges
One exception should be noted Traditionally maize is grown on the relshyatively higher fertility compound land Three years of on-farm researcher-manageu trials experimenting with maize on non-compound land with TR in general did not show significant yield increases (FSU Annual Report 1983 Lang et al 1984 and Ohm et al 1985a) These expershyiments appear to indicate the need to first utilize organic material or fertilizer to convert the less fertile land into the equivalent of comshypound land before putting the tied ridges on it if maize is to be grown there
4 All the FSU economic analyses have been carried out using subsidized fertilizer prices (40 to 50) Clearly the economic profitability would be lower and the incidence of fertilizer cash outlay loss greater utilizing unsubsidized prices
Trials examining the possibility of growing maize on good sorghum land and sorghum on good millet land by upgrading the soil through a fertilshyizertied ridge combination were also conducted Three years of onshyfarm researcher-managed maize on sorghum land trials proved inconclushysive (FSU Annual Reports) and although a sorghum on millet land experishyment showed promise sorghum plant establishment was a problem (Ohm et al ]985a)
6 The observed farmer adoption rates in different regions correlate well
with experimental evidence which sugests that yields are less variable and more responsive to fertilizer and that there is less risk of losing fertilizer cash outlay as rainfall levels and land quality improves
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When questioned farmers said that they saw the value of fertilizer but that credit and availability were obstacles to greater use All complex fertilizers are imported from outside the WASAT and usually distribution within each country is handled by a para-statal organization
8 An FSU on-farm farmer-managed experiment involving tied ridges and
mulch (5 Tha) on maize was conducted in two village sites in Burkina in 1984 (Ohm et al 1985a p 17) The mulch part of the experiment was abandoned since only 6 of the 50 farmers had access to sufficient mulch
The MRT is attached to an animal drawn cultivator with one large middle sweep The MRT is essentially a paddle wheel (45 cm in diameter) with four paddles one scraping the ground building up earth until it is tripped by the operator every 1-12 to 2 meters to create the tie in the furrow between the two ridges
10 Analysis of five management factors--plowing tied ridges fertilization
timing planting arrangement and weeding timing--indicated that the major determinants of the yield gap between the experiment station and farmers fields were plowing and tied ridges (Matlon 1985) Also the major problems observed in the on-farm trials with the elite cultivars are drought and heat stress related leading to poor seedling establishshyment and poor flowering and grain filling ability Spittlebug problems have occurred on the new sorghum variety of Framida (Ohm et al 1985b) and striga continues to be a problem with most new sorghum varieties
11 The development of hybrid varieties such as the hybrid sorghums bred for
the Sudan (Gebisa 1986) may play a role in obtaining moderate level management response The poor marketing infrastructures of the WASAT however vould prevent hybrids from being a technology that could be used in the short run Present breeding for disease and pest resistance in sorghim and millet is encouraging (Andrews 1986 Andrews et al 1985) and is expected to play an important role in increasing cereal yields in the intermediate run
12 Empirical evidence linking reduced risk aversion with higher levels of
wealth is not available in the WASAT It has been a standard part of decision theory that at higher levels of wealth risk aversion would decrease (Anderson et al 1977) This proposition seems to be consisshytent with field interviews with farmers about their objectives (see Chapter IV page of this report)
13 Not included among the categories is a high risk averse low wealth
animal traction household While this category undoubtedly exists in the WASAT the number of households in this category would alot be large
14 The recommendation domains presented in Table 5 are discussed at the
inter-household level which considers resource endowments and decisionshymaking in the context of a family unit vis-a-vis another family unit
63
The recommendation domains could also be discussed at the intrashyhousehold level which considers differences--in gender age and access to and control of resources within the household--which may lead to difshyferences in the sequencing and types of technologies adopted by the various sub-groups (see McKee 1983 Nagy et al 1985)
15 The opportunity cost of labor (wage rate from outside employment) ranges
from 30 to 50 FCFAhr (FSU unpublished survey data) At an opportunity cost of 35 FCFAhr farmers would not have lost money by undertaking the construction of tied ridges (Table 2)
16 Calculations made using the procedure by Jaeger (1984) and adding apshy
propriate costs and revenues based on FSU on-farm farmer-managed trials to estimate the yield increases from the use of the MRT (Ohm et al 1985b Nagy et al 1986)
17 The weekly available labor hour figures used in the model are based on
conservative estimates Increasing the labor availabilities by 10 to 20 for the tied ridging period andor allowing tied ridging to also take place in the following period results in tied ridges being conshystructed on all the cereal land
CHAPTER VI
POLICY IMPLICATIONS AND FUTURE AVENUES FOR RESEARCH AND EXTENSION
This report has proposed that the overall sequence of technology intervention for the WASAT is 1) technologies that improve the agronomicenvironment ie water retention and soil fertility improvement With appropriate policy and institutional support this technology combination can be immediately implemented 2) the use when they become available of improved varieties that can exploit moderate input levels If varieties are developed for the moderate input levels recommended in 1) above this techshynology is expected to be available for farmer adoption in the next five to ten years and 3) more intensive livestockcereal systems in the better agricultural areas and a shift back to extensive grazing and forestry in the more marginal agricultural regions There are many types of technolshyogies for those intensive livestockcerealcash crop systems that can now be productively studied on the experiment station and in on-farm trials so that these systems can be available to farmers after the next decade
The first priority of the agricultural policy research and extension community in the WASAT is to develop technologies to increase the yields of the cereal-based systems dominate the The presentfarming which area focus should be on alleviating the low soil fertilitylow soil water retenshytion constraints Complex fertilizers the water retention methods of tied ridges diguettes and dikes and the labor-saving technologies of animal traction and the mechanical ridge tier are a]rady available for extension in much of the region
Tied ridging chemical fertilizer and animal traction however have all been potentially available to farmers in the WASAT for more than two decades Yet there has been little adoption by WASAT food crop producers of any of these three innovations This is because there was little ecoshynomic incentive to adopt these technologies prior to the 1960s because food consumption needs were being met Moreover there was little export demand for sorghum and millct Hence there was little demand for new cereal technologies However with increased population recent droughtsand the deterioration of the soil quality in the higher population regions during the intervening years the demand for new cereal technology has subshystantially increased
Credit fertilizer and animal traction non-availability and lack of information have all been cited as reasons for the low level of farmer adoption of the above technologies in the WASAT From our perspective the principal reason for the failure to adopt these individual components is that the economic impact of each of the three components has not been sufshyficiently high by itself Fertilizer utilization is too risky in poorrainfall years without some simultaneous method to increase the availabilshy
water the critical times of plant development themselves do not resolve the low soil fertility problem Family labor
ity of at Tied ridges by
65
availability constrains the amount of tied ridging construction It apshypears from the on-farm trials and the whole-farm modeling results that all three technologies (including the MRT) would need to be introduced togetherbefore economic incentive and risk levels are adequate for technology adoption Introducing the technologies together would alleviate the soil fertiltty soil water and labor constraints and provide high economic incentives at levels of risk that would be attractive to farmers However as previously discussed farmers adopt technologies sequentially and not as a package
An option is to wait for the research community to develop new techshynologies that will individually provide a sufficient economic incentive at a level of risk that is attractive to farmers Another option is to develop support programs that will enable farmers to sequentially adopt the available technologies en route to total package adoption The review of the constraints to cereal production and the review of the available and future technologies for the WASAT (Chapters IV and V) point out that such individual technologies will not be available in the short run and will probably not be available in the intermediate run (10-15 years) The pressing problems of the WASAT require more immediate solutions which can only be brought about by support programs to facilitate the adoption of the available technologies If the package of available technologies is introshyduced without special government programs farmers are expected to adoptthe technologies in the sequence given for each recommendation domain as outlined in Chapter V (Table 5) Adoption by recommendation domain would vary with those in the low risk aversehigh wealth categories adopting the technologies first groups such asSome the high risk averselow wealth old settlement farmers may never adopt any of the technologies
Implementation of a support program to increase the present cereal production in the WASAT would include
a) credit programs for the cash outlays required by farmers for fershytilizer and animal traction
b) farm mnagement information especially on efficient utilization of animal traction and fertilizer from the extension service
c) development of the input and product markets
thrustA main of the support program would be to select the technologieswithin each recommendation dolvin that farmers would most likely adopt
described Ta|IlAfirst (as in 5) and provide the economic incentives and pre-conditions for farmers to adopt the technology Once farmers become acquainted with the technology the next technology would be supported in a similar manner and so on until the total technology package was adoptedAppropriate economic incentives and pre-conditions would ensure that techshynology adoption proceeded as quickly as possible so that all the farmers could adopt the total package in the shortest possible time
66
To facilitate new-technology introduction some of the potential typesof research and extension institutional support programs are mentioned below
Priorities for Extension and Local Governments
The highest priorities for extension and local government agencies involve focusing on the soil fertilitywater retention technologies of manshyual tied ridging diguettes and dikes complex fertilizers animal traction and the mechanical ridge tier These technologies should be put forward on demonstration fields (using local farmer participation where appropriate) individually and as packages for each of the recommendation domains
There is a role for local government agencies in the construction and maintenance of large dikes and barriers to regulate the speed of rainfall runoff at the village level Within each region individual households would either construct tied ridges andor diguettes--whichever is the most appropriate for the area Where diguettes are used assistance from local government agencies may be required for correct contour placement
A critical role will have to be undertaken by extension agencies to ensure that the appropriate preconditions exist for animal traction adopshytion The preconditions of shorter learning curves for both the farmer and draft animals and higher utilization rates can be facilitated by animal traction programs Extension agencies could be involved in training farmshyers (technical operation and animal maintenance) and in the training of draft animals until a draft animal market develops Shortening the learnshying curve will itseli increase utilization rates which can be further increased by an appropriate complement of implements including the mechanshyical ridge tier
Priorities for On-Farm Testing
The prototype IITA mechanical ridge tier requires further modificashytions at the engineering level to reduce its weight and awkwardness and increase its adaptability for hook-up with a wide range of cultivatorplow equipment (Nagy et al 1986a) Other possibilities include an automatic tripping device and even new design concepts which need to be rigorously field tested with farmer participation As modifications and new design concepts are developed they must be made available to the extension system and local manufacturers and provisions made for information feedback to the on-farm testing agencies The mechanical ridge tier is an implement that can be made locally and every attempt by the local extension agencies to provide prototype copies to local manufacturers should be undertaken Locally-made mechanical ridge tiers enable location-specific adaptations arising from a local manufacturerfarmer interchange
Priorities also include further on-farm testing of diguettes and of modifications of diguettes and barriers Further on-farm testing across the WASAT of raw and acidulated rock phosphate from all the major rock
67
phosphate deposits in the WASAT is required to evaluate the agronomic and economic feasibility of this technology
Priorities for Experimental Research Stations
On-station crop improvement programs require a change in the presentemphasis on screening and selection under high management conditions--manshyagement conditions much higher than can be provided by WASAT farmers in the intermediate run Thus crop improvement programs in the WASAT should conshycentrate on developing varieties that show stability over time and exhibit a response curve that exploits moderate management levels Selection must be focused on resistance to important pests and diseases as well as producshytion superiority under varying levels of soil productivity and available soil moisture--all of which contribute to production stability This change in crop development goals requires new screening and selection proshycedures and an increased interdisciplinary effort between on-station and on-farm research
The designing of labor-saving devices for fertilizer applicationplanting and other field operations should be further studied for both manual and animal traction farmers where applicable Research on water retention methods other than tied ridges or diguettes is required for those areas where these two technologies are not effective especially on the sandier soils characterizing much of the Sahelo-Sudanian zone
CHAPTER VII
SUMMARY
Whole-farm modeling was critical in identifying the potential effect of new technologies and in evaluating the seasonal labor bottleneck As onshyfarm trials produce more technologies that pass the yield and profit criteria whole farm modeling analysis will become increasingly important to identify the interactions of technology components and estimate their potenshytial impact at the farm level
A major contribution of the Purdue farming systems research project was not the identification of the individual constraints but rather a study of their interconnected nature It is necessary for farming systems research projects to concentrate on the well-known synergistic nature of agricultural inputs and not be satisfied with minimum cost input changes which also have minimal effects on yields or profits
The seasonal labor constraint has been stressed as the principal barshyrier to agricultural development in the WASAT and in other semi-arid areas in Africa However a more agronomic orientation to the analysis of the water requirement and 1oil fertility problems was necessary The combined effect of improved water retention increases in soil fertility and overshycoming the seasonal labor bottleneck with the mechanical tied ridger had a substantial impact on farm income Since the combined effects are much larger than the individual effects it is unfortuuiLte that farmers tend to adopt one input at a ime Governmental support of the combined practices appears to be necessary to facilitate their combined introduction
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Eicher Carl K 1983 West Africas agrarian crisis Paper prepared for the fifth bi-annual conference of the West African Association of Agricultural Economists Abidjan Ivory Coast
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Fussell L K and P G Serafini 1985 Crop associations in the semishyarid tropics of West Africa In Appropriate technologies for farmers in semi-arid West Africa H W Ohm and J G Nagy (eds) Internashytional Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Gebisa Ejeta 1986 Breeding sorghum hybrids for irrigated and rainfed conditions in the Sudan Proceedings International drought symposium on food grain production in the semi-arid regions of Sub-Saharan Africa Nairobi Kenya
Ghodake R D and J B Hardaker 1981 Whole-farm modeling for assessshyment of dryland technology International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRlSAT) Patancheru Andhra Pradesh India
Hardaker J Brian Jock R Anderson and John L Dillon 1984 Perspecshytives on assessing the impacts of improved agricultural technologies in developing countries Australian Journal of Agricultural Economics 2887-108
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Jaeger W K 1983 Animal traction and resource productivity Evidence from Upper Volta Paper presented at the third annual farming systems research symposium Kansas State University Manhattan Kansas
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Kang B T C F Wilson and T L Lawson 1984 Alley cropping A stable alternative to shifting cultivation International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) Ibadan Nigeria
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Lang M G R P Cantrell H W Ohm and S Sawadogo 1984 FSUSAFGRAD 1983 Annual Report International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
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McCarl B A 1982 REPFARM Design calculation and interpretation ofthe linear programming model Station Bulletin No 385 AgriculturalExperiment Station Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
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McNamara R S 1985 The challenges for sub-Saharan Africa Sir John Crawford Memorial Lecture November 1 Consultative Group on Internashytional Agricultural Research Washington DC
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77
APPENDIX 1
Administrative Report
In December 1978 Purdu University was awarded a two year contract with the US Agency for International Development to establish and operate a farming systems research unit in Burkina Faso as one of the components of the Semi-Arid Food Grain Research and Development Program (SAFGRAD)
This contract AFR-C-1472 had several mandates
1 Analyze small farm conditions and application of new technologies to those conditions
2 Formulate strategies regarding development and application of small farm relevant technology
3 Develop recommendations regarding physical research priorities and
4 Design help organize and analyze farmer field trials and studies as a means of performing the above
After several extensions the contract was amended in 1985 to reflect an additional set of objectives
1 Complete the transfer of the farming systems research methodology and techniques gained under this contract to national research organizashytions in the SAFGRAD countries
2 Finalize analysis of empirical research results
3 Finalize and publish guidelines for the methodological analytical or organizational and operational conduct of FSR in the SAFGRAD region
4 In conjunction with the SAFGRAD coordination office complete the groundwork for a West African regional FSR network
The termination of the project occurred on June 30 1986 Field activities in Burkina Faso were maintained through March 31 1986
The body of this report provides a description of the achievements of the project in terms of its mandate This section is the administrative report covering the implementation of this contrast
Contractor staff were provided logistic support by USAID in accordance with local AID procedures this included housing and utilities furniture household equipment and medical facilities to our long term staff In addition two vehicles were provided to our team for the duration of the project These vehicles were financed outside our contract but from SAFGRAD project funds
Initially the Purdue University team comprising an agricultural economist agronomist and rural sociologist were to be provided office
78
space at the Kamboinse Research station outside the city limits of Ouagadougou At the onset the FSU office was established in Ouagadougou then moved to Kamboinse however because the vehicles provided were not very reliable and transportation problems for local hire staff created major problems the office was relocated in Ouagadougou in agreement with SAFGRAD and USAID The FSU team continued to closely work with the ICRISAT and IITA teams who had responsibility for other resetrch components of the SAFGRAD program
At Purdue University a steering committee composed of the departments heads of Agronomy Agricultural Economics and SociologyAnthropology was established to guide activities of the FSU It frequently met to evaluate progress discuss issues relevant to the project and to formulate overall strategy for achieving project objectives
Technical coordination and backstopping for the project was maintained on the Purdue campus during the entire project period Dr Wilford H Morris provided this service from 1978 to June 1983 and Dr John H Sanders from July 1983 to termination On-campus administrative and logistic support was provided by the Office of International Programs in Agriculture under the directorship of T Kelley White and D Woods Thomas Other administrative staff responsible for project activities were Dr James L Collom associate director IPIA and Mrs Katy Ibrahim administrative assistant for the FSU project
In addition Dr Thomas was a participant of the SAFGRAD Technical Advisory Committee (TAG) and Consultative Committee (CC) of the SAFGRAD which met yearly in Burkina Faso These committees were a channel for review of all SAFGRAD activities in WestCentral Africa
During the seven and a half years the FSU project existed a total of nine long-term staff were on site in Burkina Faso for a total of 225 person months (PM)
Paul Christensen agronomist acting chief-of-party February 1979 to December 1981 - 33 PM
Richard Swanson rural sociologist October 1979 to July 1983 - 46 PM
Ram Singh economist and chief of party April 1979 to Macch 1981 - 24 PM
William Jaeger economistcomputer analyst December 1981 to June 1983 - 19 PM
Ronald Cantrell agronomistchief of party February 1982 to January 1984 - 23 PM
Mahlon Lang economist February 1982 to April 1984 - 26 PM
Herbert Ohm agronomistchief of party August 1983 to August 1985 -24 PM
Christopher Pardy economistcomputer analyst December 1983 to Tune 1983 - 16 PM
79
Joseph Nagy economistchief of party July 1984 to April 1985 14-
PM
In addition several short-term technical staff and consultants traveled to Burkina Faso for a total of 185 PM They are as follows
In 979 Kenneth Jones computer specialist at Purdue spent 50 PM to assist our in-country staff in organizing the data management That same year Ms Annie Buryer a sociologist spent 3 months in the field assisting our rural sociologist in setting up the village questionnaires In 1980 Herbert Butler rural sociologist spent 50 PM assisting in the analysis of the collected research dava In 1981 Stan Cohen computer specialist and agricultural economist spent 4 PM in the analysis of socio-economic data Len Malczynski computer specialist also spent 75 PM in the field in organizing the data Iandiing systems Anne-Marie Kaylen MS candidate in the Department of Agricultural Economics spent eight 1PM in the field to collect data for her thesis
Wilford H Morris technical coordinator for the FSU spent 200 PM in the field to provide support to our in-country team
In 1983 Jon Brandt agricultural economist spent 50 PM in Burkina Faso to assist Kirnseyinga Sawadogo in the collection of data for his PhD Thesis In 1984 Charles Rhykerd agronomist and soil specialist spent 75 PM oking with our staff in collecting soil samples and providing agronomLc support to our staff John Sanders as on-campus technical coordinator spent a total of 100 PM in the field working -ith the field economists
Purdue administrative staff also traveled to Burkina Faso during the existence of this project for a total of 45 person months
PM
T Kelley White acting director IPA 50 Paul Farris Head Agricultural Economics Dept 25 D Woods Thomas Director IPIA 150 Katy Ibrahim Administrative Assistant FSU 100 John Sanders Technical Coordinator 75 James L Collom Associate Director IPIA 50
Purdue University also conducted an internal evaluation of project activities in Burkina Faso in 1984 Members of the team who spent one week in-country were
Bernard Liska Dean School of Agricul-ire William Dobson Head Agricultural Economics Department Marvin Phillips Head Agronomy Department D Woods Thomas Director and Associate Dean International Programs in Agriculture
Sawadogo Sibiri participated in the On-Farm Experimentation Workshop University of Harare Zimbabwe (co-sponsored with CIMMYT) February 6-24
80
1984 the East Africa Agricultural Economics Program CIMMYT Nairobi Kenya October 27 to November 6 and in the evaluation of FSR programs with ACPOs in Senegal February 24 to March 1
Three Burkinabe staff enrolled at Purdue University for additional long-term training
Paul Compaore Agricultural Economics MS 1983-1985 Baya Toe Agricultural Economics MS 1983-1985 Kimseyinga Savadogo Agricultural Economics PhD 1979-1986
All have returned to Burkina Faso Dr Savadogo as a professor at the University of Ouagadougou Paul Compaore and Baya Toe are working in the Burkinabe Ministry of Agriculture
All of these educational activities contributed significantly to quality and dependable data collection and team spirit In addition these --aining activities were a significant factor in the transfer of host country technical and research staff to the national agricultural research program IBRAZ
Training for US graduate students was also made possible throughthis project Ms Anne-Marie Kaylen spent eight months in the field colshylecting data for her MS thesis in agricultural economics Also three graduate students funded under the PurdueINTSORMIL project spent eight months each in Burkina Faso working with our staff in support of the project while collecting data for their field research These were Michael Roth PhD Kimseyinga Savadogo PhD and Ann Bukowski MS Under FSU auspices William Jaeger developed his PhD dissertation on the economics of animal traction in Burkina Faso
The Farming Systems Unit project cooperated in the conduct of two regional workshops In September 1983 in cooperation with ICRISAT and IRAT a regional workshop on farmers participation in the development and evaluation of technology was held in Ouagadougou The proceedings of this workshop were published by che International Develpoment Research Centre In April 1985 the FSU in conjunction with the SAFGRAD Coordination Office conducted a workshop on technologies appropriate for farmers in semi-arid West Africa The proceedings of this workshop (in English and French) were distributed widely by the Office of International Programs in Agriculture
Thirty-six research-based technical papers were written and disshytributed under FSU auspices (See Appendix 2 for a listing of these publications)
The Farming Systems Unit project was not without administrative andor logistical problems Included were such things as unavoidable delays in transfer of funds to the field inadequacy of in-country transportation arrangements imperfection in project design establishing FSU relationshipwith national agricultural institutions and international development assistance organizations internal and international political events and the lack of ex-ante long-term contractual and funding commitments Excellent cooperation among the US national regional and international organizations involved in the program made it possible to resolve such issues with minimal impact on project productivity
81
Purdue University is deeply grateful to the OAUSTRC the SAFGRAD and its Consultative and Technical Advisory Committees USAIDOuagadougou AID Washington the government of Burkina Faso ICRISAT IITA and other enshytities for their assistance and cooperation in the conduct of this project Without such the objectives of this ambitious research could not have been attained
82
APPENDIX 2
Publications List
1 FSUSAFGRAD Staff Questionnaire Utilises pour le Etudes Sur les Systems de Production Agricoles Dans Des Villages Echantillons de Haute Volta Farming Systems Unit Project International Programs inAgriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana January 1980
2 Saunders M 0 Farming Systems Research Unit Working papers (1)Agriculture in Upper Volta The Institutional Framework (2) LocalEcology Population and Ethnic Groups in Upper Volta and (3) TheMossi Farming Systems in Upper Volta International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1980
3 Bruyer A Towards a Use of Survey Materials Report on Zone of Zorgho Farming Systems Unit Project International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana May 1980
4 Christensen P J Observations on the Major Classification of Field Trials Used in Farming Systems Research Farming Systems Unit Project International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana January 1981
5 Christensen P J Rock Phosphate Fertilizer in Upper Volta Part 1 Preliminary Report on Policy Implications of Cereal YieldCharacteristics Farming Systems Unit Project International Programsin Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana April 1981
6 Christensen P J and R A Swanson SAFGRADFSU 1981 Research Programs Farfling Systems Unit Project International Programs inAgriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana April 1981
7 Cohen S Costs and Returns of Household Crop Production NedogoUpper Volta Department of Agricultural Economics Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana September 1982
8 Lang M R Cantrell and J IfSanirs Identifying Constraints and Evaluating New Techology in the Purdue Farming Systems Project in Upper Volta in C B Flora (ed) Animals in the Farming SystemKansas State University Manhattan Kansas pp 184-206 1984
9 Jaeger W K Animal Traction and Resource Productivity Evidence from Upper Volta in C B Flora (ed) Animals in the Farming ystem ibid pp 431-460 1984
10 Singh R D E W Kehrberg and W H M Morris Small FarmProduction Systems ii Upper Volta Descriptive and Productive Function Analysis Experiment Station Bulletin Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1984
11 Lang M G and 24 Roth Risk Perceptions and Risk Management byFarmers in Burkina F-aso Paper presented at the Annual FarmingSystems Conference at Kansas State University in 1984
83
12 Rhykerd C L Constraints and Research Needs for Livestock Production in Upper Volta International Programs in AgriculturePurdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1984
13 Sanders J H The Evolution of Farming Systems Research Towards Where International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1984
14 Roth M and J H Sanders An Economic Evaluation of AgriculturalTechnologies and Implications for Development Strategies in Burkina Faso International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana First presented at the Annual Farming SystemsConference at Kansas State University in 1984
15 Lang M G and R C Cantrell Accenting the Farmers Role Purdue Farming Systems Unit in P Matlon R Cantrell D King and M Benoit-Cattin (edited) Coming Full Circle Farmers Participation inthe Development of Technology International Developmernt Research Center Ottawa Canada pp 63-70 1984
16 Lang M H Ohm and R Cantrell Adaptability Analysis of Farmer-Managed Trials in Farming Systems Research International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1985
17 Lang M G Agricultural Production and Marketing Activities of Women in Burkina Faso International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1985
18 Lang M G Crop and Livestock Marketing Patterns in Burkina FasoInternational Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1985
19 Pardy C R Cereal Sales Behavior Among Farm Households in FourVillages in Burkina Faso International Programs i- AgriculturePurdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1985
20 Nagy J G and H W Ohm Economic Analysis of Tied Ridges and Fertilization in Farmer-Managed Sorghum Trials in Burkina Faso Paperpresented at the International Conference of AgricultLal Economists Malaga Spain 1985
21 Nagy J G L L Ames and H W Ohm Tecchnology Evaluation PilicyChange and Farmer Adoption in Burkina Fa Paper presented at the Farming Systems Symposium Kansas State University Manhattan Kansas 1985
22 Schaber L A Literature Review of Soil Fertility in the West Africa Semi-Arid Tropics (WASAT) International Programs in AgriculturePurdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1985
23 Sanders J H J G Nagy and B Shapiro Developing and EvaluatingNew Agricultural Technology for the Sahel A Case Study in Burkina Faso Submitted to Economic Development and Cultural Change 1985
84
24 Ohm H W and J G Nagy (Editcrs) Appropriate Technologies for Farmers in Semi-Arid West Africa International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1985 359 pages (also available in French)
25 Roth M P Abbott J Sanders and L McKinzie An Application of Whole-Farm Modelling to New Technology Evaluation Central Mossi Plateau Burkina Faso International Programs in Agriculture Purdue bniversity West Lafayette Indiana 1986
26 Diallo N N and J C Nagy Burkini Faso Access and Control of Resources in the Farming Systems Recent Legal Political and Socio-Economic Changes Paper presented at the Conference on Gender Issues in Farming Systems Research and Extension Gainesville Florida February 1986
27 Nagy J C and L L Ames Evaluation of New Technologies in Burkina Faso Using Whole Farm Modelling Paper presented at the Annual Conference of American Agricultural Economists Reno Nevada 1986
28 Sanders J H and B Shapiro Agricultural Technology Development in Burkina Faso in Chapter 12 of Y Moses (ed) Proceedings African Agricultural Develompent Conference Technoloiy Ecology and Society California State Polytechnic Institute Pomona California 1986
29 Nagy J G H W Ohm L L Ames and L D Schaber Analysis of IITASAFGRAD Mechanical Ridge Tier International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1986
30 Nagy J G H W Ohm and S Sawadogo Burkina Faso A Case Study of the Purdue UniversitySAFGRAD Farming Systems Project forthcoming in the Florida Farming Systems Project Case Studies Series 1986
31 Ames L L A Preliminary Report on the Evaluation of New Technologies in Burkina Faso International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1986
32 Annual Report (English) 1979
33 Annual Report (English) 1980
34 Annual Report (English) 1982
35 Annual Report (English amp French) 1983
36 Annual Report (English amp French) 1984
37 Annual Report (English) 1985
38 End of Project Report 1986
85
Theses List
1 Kaylen A M Current Farming Conditions in Nedogo and Digre Upper Volta MS Thesis Department of Agricultural Economics Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana August 1982
2 Jaeger W K Agricultural Mechanization The Economics of Animal Traction in Burkina Faso Stanford University unpublished PhD thesis 1984 To be published as a book by Westview Press
3 Bukowski AS Performance of Grain Markets in Selected Areas of Burkina Faso MS Thesis Department of Agricultural Economics Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana May 1986 Utilized some of the data and research support from the FSU project in Upper Volta but was directly supported by INTSORMIL
4 Roth M An Econoimc Evaluation of Agricultural Policy in Burkina Faso West Africa A Sectoral Modeling Approach unpublished PhD dissertation Department of Agricultural Economics Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana May 1986 Utilized some of the data and research support from the FSU project in Upper Volta but was directly supported by INTSORMIL
5 Savadogo K An Analysis of the Economic and Socio-Demographic Determinants (E Household Food Consumption in Ouagaodugou Burkina Faso unpublished PhD dissertation Department of Agricultural Economics Purdvr University West Lafayette Indiana 1986
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
Food production and consumption trends in the Third World over the past two decades have shifted world attention from Asia to Sub-Saharan Africa (Paulino and Mellor 1984) The Green Revolution in Asia--the increase in rice and wheat yields brought about by improved varieties and an expanded use of fertilizer and other purchased inputs--has greatly increased Asian per capita food production (Pinstrup-Andersen and Hazell 1985) A similar Green Revolution phenomenon however has not yet taken place in sub-Saharan Africa One of the areas of most concern in Sub-Saharan Africa is the geographical region of the West African semi-arid tropics (WASAT) Current food production and population growth trends have led many to adopt a Malthusian perspective about the future of the WASAT
The countries of the WASAT include Senegal Gambia Burkina Faso the southern portions of Mauritania Mali Niger and Chad and the northern portions of Ghana Benin Ni eria and Cameroon (Norman et al 1981) Troll (1966) defines semi-ard tropics as regions where precipitation exceeds potential evapotranspiration for 2 to 7 months of the year Figure I delineates the principal climatic zones in the WASAT based on annual rainfall levels (09 probability isohyets of 1931-60 rainfall data)
The WASAT is one of the poorest regions in the world with 1984 per capita yearly incomes for countries in the area ranging between $US 80 and $US 300 (McNamara 1985) The region as a whole has balance of trade and balance of payments problems The economies depend heavily on foreign aid borrowing and worker remittances People (labor) are one of the biggest exports from the region--an estimated 25 of the labor force of Burkina Faso works in neighboring non-WASAT areas (World Bank 1981) The region exhibits a bottom-heavy age pyramid with country population growth rates ranging between 25 to 30 per ear and a fertility rate averaging 65 children per adult female The growth in per capita food production (1971shy1984) for the region as a whole is negative while levels of food imports (largely from donor agencies) have increased dramatically over the last 25 years (McNamara 1985 Paulino and Mellor 1984)
The declining food production per capita is associated with the conshytinuing droughts of the 1968-73 and 1976-80 periods (Nicholson 1982) and the most recent 1984 drought Other factors such as inadequate economic incentives for farmers and the failure to adapt and adopt new agricultural technologies have also been cited as explanations for the failure of food production to accompany population growth
(Adapted from World Bank 1985)200 o0 200
ALGERIA -200
20
MAURITANIAOE
SahLan NLMALI 3XJ50n n6038 0
uda n - ne13A v C e 0L 0
10 GUINEA-BISS1U 00 2 00 GUINEA i S h i and Sud -nia Zones
SIERRA IVORY 0 IERA LEONECOAST
0HNI -
CLIMATIC ZONES AEO1 o0O Zones Rainfall
-- 350 - 30-Sahelo-aian P Sahelo- aian NL50 - 350
Sudanian 600 -800 0Komts 200 400 600 Sudano-Guinean Above 800 K oM lers shy
200 4 00
deg deg20 0 100 o 10c0 deg 20
Figure 1 West African Sahelian and Sudanian Zones
3
Since the WASAT does nLt have the manland pressure of much of Asia and Asia has been successful in rapidly increasing agricultural production in its prime agricultural areas it is useful to look at the resource base in this region The present manland ratios in the WASAT average roughly15 persons per sq km (World Bank 1985) compared with up to 600 persons per sq km in Asia (McNamara 1985) The poorer agricultural resource base of the WASAT however cannot support the high man-land ratio of Asia (Matlon 1985) For example in the older settlement villages of the Central Plateau of Burkina Faso manland ratios are as high as 60 persons per sqkm (World Bank 1985) These high manland ratios relative to the resource base have been causing the breakdown of the traditional bush-fallow farming systems Traditionally the crop area was cultivated for 3 to 5 years and then left idle for a decade or more to restore soil fertility In many of the older settlement villages increased population has meant limited access to new land a shortening of the fallow rotation period and the culshytivation of more marginal land (Norman et al 1982 Dugue 1985) For example in the village (Figure 2)of Nedogo Burkina Faso many fields have been cultivated as long as the farmers can remember (FSUSAFGRAD 1983) Moreover almost all the crop residues are utilized for feed or building materials or else burned further exhausting the fertility of the soil Declinin7 soil fertility in the older settled regions has bei disshyrupting the cereal production systems pushing the cereals into more marshyginal areas and encouraging a substitution of millet for sorghum (Ames 1986)
During the high rainfall period of the fifties and early sixties intensive crop production was further extended into the Sahelo-Sudanian zone (World Bank 1985) With the droughts and increased desertification of the late sixties and seventies many have become concerned with the posshysible interaction of human settlement and further desertification (Nicholson 1982 World Bank 1985) While this debate has not been resolved there is no doubt that the resource base in much of the Sahelo-Sudanian zone has further deteriorated The cereals deficit problem has become increasingly serious
All three phenomena--the disappearing fallow system the failure to incorporate crop residues and the extension of crop cultivation into more marginal agricultural regions--lead to further soil detcrioration in the absence of technological intervention In overpopulated agriculturalregions such as the Central Plateau of Burkina Faso the bush fallow systemis being replaced by a permanent cultivation system characterized by verylow and stagnant cereal yields (Lang et al 1984 see Ruthenberg 1980 for other examples of this dynamics)
Not all the WASAT is overpopulated Rather many of the regions can be characterized as frontier zones For example the eastern region of Burkina Faso (ie Diapangou Figure 2) with man-land ratios of 15 persons
I
oBURKINA FASO I Principal Cities 3 350
FSU Survey Villages Dori
OuaigoyaBangasse
deg 00 1i0
Dissankuy FauF
Bdobo ogo NGourma 800bullDioulasso bulloBE -I -NIN
TOGOBanfora
GHANA CLIMATIC ZONES Zones Rainfall
IVORY COAST Sahelian NLC- 350IVRYCASlSahelo-Sudanian 350 - 600
Sudanian 600 - 800 Sudano-Guinean Above 800
(I) NLC NORTHERN LIMIT OF CULTIVATION (2) ISOHYETS INn
00
Figure 2 FSU research sites and climatic zones of Burkina Faso
5
per sq km has surplus land and follows the bush-fallow system of cultivashytion However even on the frontier as population pressure increases in the next five years a phenomenon similar to what is now taking place on the Central Plateau of Purkina Faso would be expected to occur It is becoming increasingly important to develop land substituting technologies for the overpopulated regions And although labor substituting technolshyogies are presently still very important on the frontier at the present pace of developnnt the frontier zones will confront similar problems to those in the overpopulated regions during the next decade
Given the present cereals crisis in the WASAT it is becoming critical to develop or ad~pt new agricultural technologies which will reverse the Malthusian trends In the mid-sixties before the start ofthe Green Revolution similar Malthusian statements were made about the agricultural potential of the Indian sub-continent However during the late sixties and seventies agricultural regions in Asia with irrigation or regular assured rainfall had the mosc rapid growth rates in technology diffusion ever empirically documented Although the resource endowment in the WASAT is not as great as that of the Punjab and similar Asian regions research reported here will atuempt to show that there is substantial potential for cereal technology development in the WASAT
The technology development process in the Purdue UniversitySAFGRAD Farming Systems Unit Project had two phases The first phase was the development of a methodology to identify the pressing constraints to cereal production increase and the testing out on farmers fields of technology alternatives available from the experiment station and from similar climatic regions in other countries The second stage was the continued evaluation of successful technologies over a sufficiently long time period and in sufficient detail to allow researchers a feeling of reasonable conshyfidence in their recommendations to both experiment station researchers and to the extension service and government officials involved in agricultural development The principle chapters of this report (III and V) are conshycerned with these two phases of the technology development process The basic methodological concepts potentially useful in other WASAT countries from the farming systems research in Burkina Faso are synthesized in Chapter III In the technology evaluation of Chapter V the results of other WASAT agricultural researchers are combined with those of the Purdue UniversitySAFGRAD Farming Systems program to give a more comprehensive evaluation of the present state of cereal technology development in the WASAT The conclusions synthesize the technology evaluation to draw out the implications for agricultural policy and for future extension and research
6
Footnotes
Rainfall averages have declined by 100 to 150 mm per year since the mid
1960s Updated isohyets using 1961-1985 data were not available In depth information on the countries and regions of the WASAT can be obtained from Kowal and Kassam 1978 McNamara 1985 Norman et al 1981 and World Bank 1985
At present there is some scope for migration to lower population denshysity areas with better soils and rainfall within the WASAT since health investments have been made to eradicate river blindness in some of the more fertile valleys (Sanders et al 1986) Several relocation proshygrams have already been undertakca in Burkina Faso (McMillan 1979) Relocation programs are costly and represent a short to intermediate solution for the WASAI Also people are reluctant to relocate and leave family friends and familar surroundings
CHAPTER II
THE PURDUE SAFGRAD FARMING SYSTEMS UNIT
The Purdue University Farming Systems Unit (FSU) funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) was part of the Semi-Arid Food Grain Research and Development Project (SAFGRAD) from December 1978 to June 1986 SAFGRAD is a regional research coordinating program implemented by the Coordination Office of the Scientific Technical and Research Commission of the Organization of African Unity (OAUSTRC) The SAFGRAD project works in cooperation with 28 sub-Saharan member countries with the coordination office located in Ouagadougou Burkina Faso The principal objective of the SAFGRAD project is to coordinate and strengthen programs in the semi-arid regions of sub-Saharan Africa that are involved in improving sorghum maize millet cowpea and groundnut yields
In the West African Semi-Arid Tropics (WASAT) SAFGRAD coordinates a research and pre-extension program The regional on-station component research is headquartered at the Central Experiment Station at Kamboinse in Burkina Faso and undertaken by IITA and ICRISAT Another component of SAFGRAD in the WASAT is the Accelerated Crops Production Officers (ACPO) program which conducts regional pre-extension and demonstration trials An integral part of the overall program is the farming systems unit which provides linkages between on-station research and the ACPOextension proshygrams The research and extension personnel of SAFGRAD (including the FSR unit) meet yearly to submit an annual report to a Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) The TAC reviews the research programs and submits the results and recommendations to the Consultative Committee (CC) which is a management and policy committee for SAFGRAD The results are passed on to host country research and extension institutions
Within the SAFGRAD framework farming systems research for Burkina Faso was provided by Purdue University for seven years up to June 1986 In the seventies farming systems methodology was still in its infancy Its mandate included the development of methodological guidelines that could be implemented in host country national and SAFGRAD sponsored farming systems programs The specific objectives of FSU were as follows
1 to identify the principle constraints to increased food producshytion
2 to identify technologies appropriate for farmers which could overshycome the production constraints
3 to develop and implement a multidisciplinary research method which could guide production technology and production research to directly address these production constraints
8
4 to identify the elements of that method which could be implemented in national farming systems research programs and
5 to train host country personnel to assume increasing responsibilshyity in their contribution to research
During the life of the FSU program agronomic and socio-economic research was conducted at the on-farm level in five villages (Figure 2) The pecific operational procedures and evolution of the FSU program are reported in Nagy et al 1986b The agronomic and soci-economic field campaign findings of the FSU program are presented in FSU Annual Reports and other FSU publications
In the final year of the contract the FSU program completed the transfer of its in-country taff arid program to tie national agricultural research institution of Burkina Faso (IBRAZ) FSU also worked with the IFAD supported SAFGRAD farming systems personnel aho backstop the national farming systems programs in Butkina Faso and Benin Through regional symshyposia and consultation the methodology and results were made available to other SAFOPAD countries as well Details of the program transfer and field staff training component of objective 5 are reported in the 1985 FSU Annual Report (Nagy and Ohm 1986)
CHAPTER III
FARMING SYSTEMS METHODOLOGY IN THE WEST AFRICAN SEMI-ARID TROPICS (WASAT)
Introduction
The basic concept of farming systems research is that the research system could function more efficiently if more information on the conshystraints which prevent farmers from improving their well-being was obtained at an earlier stage of the research development process than is common in the developing countries Farm-level constraints can be identified with both surveys and on-farm trials A further extension is to supplement the on-farm trials with whole-farm modeling This chapter will be concerned with all three approaches
In developed countries the two-way linkages of communication between farmers and agricultural scientists function better than in the WASAT due to higher educational levels of the farmers better agricultural informashytion systems and financial mechanisms in developed countries which reward the agricultural research establishments and individual scientists for their contributions to resolving farm-level production problems Farming systems esearch can provide an alternative communication linkage which does not require advancements in general education or major changes in the institutional orientation of national research systems
The clientele of Farming Systems Research will depend upon the instishytutional setting and the stage of development of the technology In the initial phases of the agricultural development process as in the WASAT the most important directional flow of information is to the researchers for several reasons First farming systems even in low input agriculshyture are very complex with many systems interactions Farmers have multiple objectives and constraints and these can vary in importance and evolve over time and even in response to the conditions of the production season (Norman 1982)
Agricultural scientists in developing countries often underinvest in understanding these complex systems and farmers objectives before beginshyning research Further they may not adequately respond to knowledge which is available When farmers do not adopt the technologies produced on the experiment station and recommended to them the initial reaction of agricultural scientists in developing countries is often that the problem of non-adoption is with the farmers the extension service or national economic policies rather than with the technologies themselves
Technology development requires a thorough understanding of the scienshytific concepts applied on the experiment station plus a multi-disciplinary approach to understanding the complexity of the farmers environment farmshying systems and decision-making process The most fundamental difference between the experiment station and farmers fields is the necessary shift
10
from component parts of new technologies as produced on the experiment station to systems with impor ant interactions such as are characteristic of farmers production systems
Farming Systems Research helps to overcome these differences by nashybling agricultural scientists to improve their understanding of the comshyplexity of the farmers systems and thereby become more efficient at idenshytifying and resolving the research problems involved in overcoming farmers constraints Two desired final products are a more efficient agricultural research system and an increase in mutual comprehension between farmers and researchers Another product is the facilitation of adoption of new sysshytems of agricultural technology so that these systems can be more rapidly incorporated into the testing and diffusion program of the extension servshyice
The principal stages in farming systems research can be identified by responding to the following questions
a) What do you do first to describe the farmers production systems How much description is enough
b) How do you plan and organize on-farm trials When do you do it What are the differences between experiment station and on-farm trials
c) How do you analyze and supplement the data coming out of the onshyfarm trials What are the relevant questions to be answered about new technology performance on farms
d) At some point in technology development outside factors (exogenous variables) such as economic policy or the further development of input production or distribution capacity such as a fertilizer marketing system improved credit or a seed industry may be constraining technology introduction How does FSR set up its own boundaries while still maximizing its effectiveness in providing relevant information to facilitate the production of new technologies
e) Who should do the farming systems research Presently International Agricultural Research Centers spend an estimated 10 to 15 million dollars annually on FSR (Anderson and Dillon 1985 p 1)
The following sections of the paper will attempt to address these speshycific questions on farming systems methodology Clearly there will be some biases from the experiences of the Farming Systems Unit in Burkina Faso and the otber FSR experiences of the authors These eperiences will be utilized as illustrations
11
Describing Farmers Environments Production Systems and Objectives The Baseline Study Stage
If the principal objective of tarming systems research is to improve the understanding of agricultural scientists about farm-level conditions then this data-collection or description process must begin with them They help to define the research problems and objectives of the fieldwork and to understand the particular target group of farmers Agricultural scientists need to be involved in farm-level research design in order to provide more information and to evaluate the accuracy of their hypotheses about farmer conditions and decision-making
The utilization of baseline studies for developing research priorities requires the identification and ranking of the principle conshystraints to increased output of the commodities studied This is not a simple process since there will be a strong bias from the individual disshyciplines of the researchers in the definition of the farm-level constraints Breeders will identify varietal characteristics for overcomshying specific yield constraints pathologists diseases economists will point out particular policies or markets which reduce the profitability of specific new technologies Hence a multi-disciplinary approach to the definition of constraints will be necessary from the beginning of the research design process Some investment by researchers in the tnderstandshying of other disciplines will also be necessary
Useful baseline research has included the economic quantification of production losses from various insects and diseases This information helped confirm the research strategies of resistance breeding for field beans at CIAT (Sanders 1984 Sanders and Lynam 1982) Similarly in Burkina Faso the initial anthropological descriptions of faring systems (M Saunders 1980) and the economic analysis of farmers objectives and seasonal labor constraints helped provide orientation for agricultural researchers in the farm trials (Lang et al 1984)
An important issue within this baseline stage is that it is extremely easy to overinvest in data collection and descriptive surveys Moreover much of the literature on farming systems puts an excessive emphasis on baseline data collection so that the research problem identification hyposhytheses analytical methodologies and even literature reviews are neglected The frequent consequence is the amassing of large quantities of data which are only partially analyzed Even with analysis much of the data collection traditionally undertaken at this stage of FSR has resulted in interesting descriptions of little relevance to researchers in reshydefining their research priorities
There are several methods for avoiding the pitfalls of random and largely irrelevant data collection The first is an extension of a method presently utilized by many agricultural scientists to identify for themshyselves the important constraints in farmers fields This involves their going into the field to see farm-level problems in their disciplinary
12
3 area A simple extension is to make these field trips multi-disciplinary and to involve some pre-trip discussion and mutual definition of field objectives If farm-level interviewing remains unstructured the datashyamassing problem can be avoided Multi-disciplinary collaboration is begun and can bd continued in the development of a report synthesizing the field observations Often these initial trips or sondeos have led to more formal multi-disciplinary questionnaire development and surveying in a second stage Clearly with the involvement of several disciplines the demand for data can increase exponentially
To more rapidly interest the agricultural scientists a different technique is suggested At any given time agricultural scientists genershyally have their own ideas of what will work on farmers fields These ideas can come directly from their own experiments from observations of farmers in other regions or from Vhe literature The suggestion here is to move rapidly into on-farm trials This will then give a defined frameshywork for supplementing on-farm trials with diagnostic surveys which have well-defined objectives ie to better evaluate specific socio-economic issues involved in introducing these new technologies tested on the farmshyers fields into the farmers production system
In these baseline surveys of the functioning of the farm and household systems at the beginning of an FSR project the anthropologists and sociologists have often made outstanding contributions to our understanding (M Saunders 1980 Reeves and Frankenberger 1982) When these surveys by the social scientists have been integrated with the research objectives of agricultural scientists their utility has been further increased It is recommended that a farming systems project begin with baseline surveys of farm and household conditions in each major target area preferably undershytaken by an anthropologist (also see Simmonds 1984 p 74) These baseshyline studies and a commencement of on-farm trials in the first production season are suggested as the appropriate way to begin farming systems reshysearch in the WASAT
The principal emphasis here is on moving rapidly to on-farm trials with supplementary analysis to provide understanding of the potential role of the new technologies in the whole farm system The methodology for this type of evaluation will be explained in detail in the fourth section on Evaluation As this type of on-farm testing and modeling analysis is being undertaken further diagnostic surveys are often useful to complement the principal investigation of the on-farm trials and farm modeling An exshyample in the Burkina Faso FSU program after three to five years of on-farm testing in different villages was a survey to evaluate adoption by parshyticipant and non-participant farmers of the new technologies tested
Designing and Implementing On-Farm Trials
There are two central issues in the implementation of on-farm trials First multi-disciplinary collaboratin is essential especially between agricultural scienmtists and economists Secondly the research objectives
13
of the experiment station and on-farm trials are different hence the organization design and arnalysis of the on-farm trials are different from those on the experiment station
True multi-disciplinary collaboration is not easy since each discishypline has its body of literature its journals certain statistical methods customarily dominated by its practitioners and even its philosophical attitudes about research and the process of agricultural development Moreover universities and many agricultural research institutions are organized by discipline Promotions in universities are linked to publicashytions in the high prestige journals of individual disciplines
To overcome these barriers between disciplines strong institutional support and continued personal relationships are both required There is a tendency in farming systems projects to give control of the on-farm trials to either the biological or the social scientists or to compartmentalize their efforts For example the agricultural scientists might manage the researcher-managed on-farm trials and the economists the farmer-managed trials Or the agricultural scientist might ask the economists help in interpreting data without collaborating with himher on field research planning and design
The most basic differences between agricultural scientists and econoshymists are in their treatment of data (Collinson 1981 p 442) Agriculshytural scientists are trained to be extremely careful in data generation to verify results over a number of years and to utilize variations of analyshysis of variance to analyze the significance of yield differences However policymakers generally need new technology recommendations in short time periods and farmers are more interested in the profitability and fit into their operati s of one or two new systems of production than in the idenshytification of the level of significance of the treatments and their interactions
Economists with simple modeling and synthetic estimates (judgements of agricultural scientsts) can help fill the gap between the public policymakers and the farmers demands for new technology information and the output from agricultural scientists Some knowledge of the agriculshytural sciences and some simple modeling are the necessary components of the economists contribution The primary requisite for successful interdisshyciplinary collaboration is the desire of the team to respond rapidly to real world problems of technology evaluation even if the data utilized are preliminary and some of them are synthetic Preliminary results can always be refined and improved with further experiments andor data collection and analysis
One important contribution of Farming Systems Research has been to demonstrate the strategic importance of on-farm testing of new technologies as a critical component of the agricultural research process (for an estishymate of the rate of return to this research see Martinez and Arauz 1984) The primary unit in new technology production is the experiment station
14
However once the component parts of new technologies have been tested on the experiment station they can be combined into packages and tested under a wide range of farming conditions (Figure 3) The synergistic or multishyplicative (rather than additive) impact of combining several factors of production is well kriown in the agricultural sciences The individual factors are identified and measured on the experiment station In the onshyfarm trials combinations of factors are evaluated to identify new systemsof production that are profitable and fit into farmers production systems
On the experiment station non-treatment inputs are held at fixed but generally high levels so that they do not affect the performance of the treatment input(s) Usually the potential for static (increased variance) in the response of the treatment input(s) is reduced by the high levels of utilization of other inputs Experiment station trials tend to study one or sometimes two factors in considerable detail Experiment stations are usually selected in the best agricultural regions and over time due to different cultural practices the agricultural conditions become substanshytially different from those on farmers fields (Sanders and Lynam 1982 Byerlce Collinson et al 1981)
Once the more basic experiments have been undertaken on the station and before recommendations are made farm-level testing is necessary If the technology performance depends upon soil climate insect or disease incidence the farm trials can help identify these factors and estimate the economic impact of overcoming the specific constraint at different levels of its incidence For example fertilizers will have a larger impact in low soil fertility regions and a disease resistant variety will be more impressive where the disease occurs A water retention technique such as tied ridges wouli be expected to work better in the heavier soils In sandier soils the ridges will be more rapidly destroyed by wind or water Moreover the on-farm trials provide a crude estimate of the relative importance of the specific constraints on the farmers fields during the production period evaluated
One method for analyzing these betwcen-farm differences in new techshynology puiformance in greater detail is to utilize a large number of farms for the farm-level trials Repetitions are often made by increasing the number of farms rather than includi ig repetitions on each farm site (DeDatta et al 1978 Sanders and Lynam 1982) One implication of this design is that variance within farms cannot he separated Another is that within any constrained planting zeason a larger number of farms can be included
Another way to handle the between-farm variation in technology perforshymance is to stratify the environments in which the technology is evaluated
15
Experiment Station On-Farm Trials
More Basic Research More Applied Research
Component Research Systems or Package Research
Variance from Non-Treatment Analyze Variance from Non-Factors Minimized Treatment Factors
Repetitions on Same Experiment Replications Across Farms
New Technologies Originate Hrre New Technologies Evaluated Here Primary Activity Secondary Activity
Emphasis on Feedback of Information to Researchers in the Experiment Station
Based Upon Technology Performance on Farms--Request Technology Modifications from the Experiment Station
To Extension Service for Further Testing and Dissemination
Figure 3 Stages of the research process
SOURCE Adapted from Sanders and Lynam 1982 p 99
16
Soil types rainfall regimes or even farmer characteristics can be utilshyized to define research domains However the performance of many new technologies under different farm-level conditions is often a stochastic event The incidence of diseases and insects is unknown at planting time so there is no way to define research domains for these problems If there is a large sample the data carn be stratified after the trials Since it is often difficult in practice to minimize the on-farm performance variashytions of new technologies by defining research (or recommendation) domains with homogeneous characteristics it is frequently necessary to employlarger sample sizes ie more on-farm trials The number of trials necessary will also depend upon the types of technologies evaluated
In the initial years of on-farm testing (early and mid-70s)economists and other social scientists frequently administered the trials Over time agricultural scientists have generally taken over the implemenshytation of these trials This transition has improved trial quality since agricultural scientists are trained for this activity However the failure to adequately specify the objectives of on-farm testing can lead to trials which are only replicas of experiment centtation trials
With the above detailed examination of the on-farm methodologies it is easy to forget that the origin of new technologies is the experimentstation This is the primary unit in the technology development processThe on-farm testing performs an important evaluation function in the reshysearch production process but it is secondary to the primary organ of agricultural research the experiment station Moreover the quality of the on-farm trials will depond upon the input from the agriculturalscientist In the design and the evaluation phases the interdisciplinary input especially fcom econiomists will be critical
The integration of the on-farm and station-based research and their links to diagnostic surveys of the farmers in the target regions and to the operational research utilizing the data resulting from the on-farm trials are [llustrated in Figure 4 As mentioned previously both the diagnostic surveys and the evaluation of on-farm trials have important roles and should function simultaneously The operational research for the evaluashytion of these on-farm triaLs will be considered in the next section
Evaluation of On-Farm Technology Performance
The on-farm trials combine several factors or component parts preshyviously evaluated on he experiment station into different systems or packages Isolating each factor aid its interactions in these trials freshyquently becomes unmanageable Beets (1982) cites an IRRI cropping systemexperiment with 750 possible treatment combinations However 7 the princishypal concern of the on-farm trials is to identify combinationswhich are profitable of factorsand fit into the farmers systems of produccion
17
Target group farmers of a recommendation
domain in a Vagion
Survey diagnosis of farmer priorities resource and environment problems and development opportunities
Identification ofunsolved technical problems and possible new practices and materials relevant to farmers development opportunities
On-farm adaptive research
Operational research for identification and evaluation of materials and techniques
offering potential for problemsolution and the exploitation
of opportunities
Station-based technical
On-farm testing via experiments on apparentl relevant materials and techniques under farmers conditions
Use of existing body of knowledge of materials and techniques suitable for the climate and soils of the ion
Component research usingcommodity and disciplinary
research solvingpriority technical problems
and investigating possible new materials and practices
Figure 4 Schematic view of farming systems research method (after Collinson 1982)
18
The treatments of the on-farm trials representing different systems pass through three phases of evaluation (Figure 5) The first phase is identical to the experiment-station analysis some variation of analysis of variance (ANOVA) It determines whether under farmers conditions there are significant yield differences with the new technologies as comparedwith the treatment representing traditional farmers practices
However technology needs to move beyond yield differences to be acceptable to farmers With a minimal increase in data requirements from the local environment the yield data from the treatments are converted into gross and then net revenue utilizing product prices and input costs This simple budgeting answers the second question in the flowchart of Figure 5 Is the new technology more profitable than farmers traditional practices
Mention should be made here of two frequently cited problems with simple budgeting (a) price variation over time and within the production season and (b) costing of non-traded inputs such as land and family labor Product prices can vary substantially within a year especially with the customary post-harvest price collapse and between years in regions with substantial climatic fluctuations and limited governmental role in pricestabilization Moreover input costs will depend upon government subsidies and the real input costs to the farmer will also depend upon the availability of an input such as fertilizer at the right place and the right time Questions about the appropriate prices and costs to be utilshyized in the evaluation are valid concerns which need to be dealt with in the economic analysis of new technology
Price variability and the effects of government policy and market development mean that profitability is a complicated decision which can be influenced by the farmers marketing strategies and by macro factors outshyside the farmers control Nevertheless farmers need to be able to devise some strategy to make a profit from a new technology Sensitivity analysiswhich varies the prices and costs over the relevant range can be utilized to respond to this problem The simple budgeting analysis of on-farm trials is usually a mean or median estimate The variation in yield pershyformance and prices received between farms is a useful complement to this measure
Some of the relevant inputs that neeJ to be costed for budgetinganalysis may not have a market price In the WASAT family labor duringcertain periods for performing specific cultural operations such as the first weeding has a very high implicit value and may even be constrainingcertain types of output expansion Mathematical programming models take into account the implicit value of the inputs and put a cost on them (shadow price) whereas budgeting treatments make some arbitrary assumpshytions about the labor market Land rental depreciation of the capitalinput and management costs are also difficult to estimate and are
19
Trial New farm results trials
(1)
Are there Yes significant Increases No
Infarm yields with the new technologytech~(noloy
(2) farms be
Ysmore
Is thenwtechnology
profitable than
farmers practices~(multiple
Noaffecting
stratified bycharacteristics
the successful
performance of the newregres-
Yes
sion cluster analysis)
(3)
Yes new technology N Newfit into the No [experiments
farmers production system(programming marketing)
extension service Analysis and diagnosisL
for further testing feedback for andor technology redesign
extension
FLgure 5 Flow Chart for New Technology Evaluation in Farin Trials
Source Sanders and Lynam 1982 p 100
In any of the three stages of evaluation a new technology treatment may not pass the criteria based upon mean values Then astratification of farms is attempted upon an a priori basis For example the performance of a fertilizer technology would beInfluenced by the soil types Ifthere were two types of soils and there was a return to fertilization on one and not the other thenstratification into these two groups would be undertaken For the subgroup of farms where the fertilizer technology waseffective the three stages of evaluation would commence again The subgroup where fertilization was not effective would raiseresearch questions for analysis and diagnosis as Indicated in the above flowchart
20
often omitted in the simple or partial budgeting In spite of the difshyficulties of costing some inputs and the price variation profitability comparisons with sensitivity analysis give substantially more information than yield comparisons
Nevertheless even profitability is not a sufficient criteria for farmer acceptance A new system may be profitable but may require more labor at a peak period than the farmer can release from his other operashytions or the new activity may have much higher capital requirements than the farmer can obtain The third question (Figure 5) is whether the techshynology fits into the farmers production system Whereas simple budgeting can indicate that one activity is more profitable than another mathematishycal programming takes into account all other present and potentialactivities and the available on-farm and off-farm resources Utilizing this technique and the above information an estimate of the extent of potential adoption of a new technology on a representative farm can be made Moreover the farm-level constraints to the further adnption of more profitable nctivities can be identified Clearly the value of this modelshying will depend upon the researchers understanding of the farming systpmand his ability to simplify the model to the essential elements
These mathematical programming whole-farm modeling techniques have been operationalized at the farm level for approximately twenty years so their practical value in assisting public and farmer decision-making in developed countries has been repeatedly demonstrated (Doster et al 1981 McCarl 1982) One difficulty in the implementation of this technique in developing countries has been the computer requirement however the rapid diffusion of micro computers to the developing countries is resolving this problem even in the WASAT Nevertheless there is a necessary time investshyment involved in training the technicians economists and agricultural scientists to implement the se models and to interpret the results
Mathematical programming forces researchers to focus their data colshylection on the systems problems of production in a whole-farm context (forreviews and applications see Anderson et al 1985 Ghodake and Hardakef 1981 Roth et al 1986) Simple technical coefficients representing the relationships between inputs and outputs and the resources available to the farmer are the relevant data sets for evaluation of profitability and the fit of the new technologies into the farmers systems of productionAdjustments in the modeling can be made for more complicated farmer beshyhaviors than profit maximization Risk avoidance can be explicitlyincluded in the analysis with programming Other constraints imposed byeconomic and technical factors can frequently be included
Another step in technology evaluation could be the analysis of the intra- and inter-household effects (see McKee 1984 Nagy Ohm and Sawadogo 1986) There has been much concern recently with the role of women in farm production and consumption analysis more specific considerashytion of their roles in land use investment and consumption decisions are warranted Moreover specific technologies could have equity effects on
21
different types o6 farms and policymakers are often concerned with these potential outcomes
Many other considerations could also be raised such as environmental concerns or the cultural trauma often associated with economic or institushytional change However the emphasis of this paper is responding to the three questions in the flow diagram of Figure 5 Positive answers to these questions have been associated with farmer adoption of new technologies in both Colombia (Sanders and Lynam 1982 p 104) and Burkina Faso (Sanders et al 1985 pp 24-28) thus providing support for the evaluation criteria presented here These evaluation criteria as reflected in the three questions of Figure 5 appear to be logical simple and powerful for undertaking farm-level evaluation of new technologies
Micro vs Macro Approaches to Farming Systems Research
The farming system fits into and is affected by many larger systems Agricultural policy the availability of inputs and the functioning of the product markets all affect farm-level decisions about new technologies and farm-level planning for the development of new technologies
The most conservative approach in on-farm technology development is to assume that all these systems are not evolving and to attempt to develop new farming systems for the present levels of development in the other systems In the WASAT this orientation would precipitate a search for minimum input cost systems such as
a) new varieties used without chemical inputs such as inorganic fertilizer
b) higher densities c) different planting dates d) different rotations e) more systematic use of multiple cropping f) more utilization of on-farm inputs such as mulch and manure
These types of marginal changes are attempts to obtain small yield increments utilizing either available resources on the farm or an input such as a new variety which requires a minimal cash expenditure Oneshyinput changes of available resources such as planting dates and rotations are easy for farmers to implement and observe and many farmers carry on small experiments of this type The observation that farmers are not utilizing these adjustments appears to be good evidence that there are technical reasons for them not to utilize them G~ferally the yield effects of the small adjustments ate either very small or under certain natural condit ns they precipitate other problems irn the cropping system For example in Colombia higher field bean densities significantly inshycreased disease incidence even with spraying (CIAT 1979 p 92)
In the last decade the French international agricultural research institute (IRAT) has been joined by three other institutes (CIMMYT
22
ICRISAT and IITA) in the WASAT Their principal research activity has been the development of new food crop varieties especially cereals Yet few cereal varieties have been successful enough to displace local cultivars Matlon (1985) estimated that the new cereal varieties presently occupy less than 5 of the WASAT crop area In our view new varieties unaccompanied by other inputs belong in this group of marginal changes which have had little impact Why Much of the WASAT is characterized by inadequate and irregular rainfall and low fertility soils These are difficult agricultural conditions for one-inpit changes Therefore it appears that WASAT farmers will neei to itilize higher levels oflyurchased inputs and to take more risks in order t) increase their incomes
Presently the level of purchased input utilization in the WASAT especially chemical inputs is extremely low The eight Sahelian countries have the lowest chemical fertilizer consumption in the world at less than 3 kgha on crops Animal traction is still in the introductory stage at less than 15 of the farmers in the WASAr (Matlon 1985) Moreover only a smail portion of the cereals are marketed (less than 10 in FSU sample villages on the Central Plateau in Burkina Faso) Only 3 of the cropland in the eight Sahelian countries is irrigated (Matlon 1983) With these low levels of input use and infrastructure it does not appear to be approshypriate to develop new technologies for high levels of input use However it is important to make improvements in the marketing systems so that modshyerate input levels can be utilized and there will be increased marketing of the cereals
Marginal changes such as the minimal input utilization changes disshycussed previously are not expected to be sufficient to interest farmers or to lead to sustained yield increases Moderate input levels including chemical inputs are expected to be necessary to obtain significant yield increases which fit economically into the farmers production systems (see Chapter V for specific details on chemical fertilizer) Hence as new technologies are being developed and implemented over time input and proshyduct marketing institutions must also evolve The development of these markets may require governmental support and further research The effishyciency of the para-statal product marketing agencies and the role of prishyvate and public institutions in input markets are two primary issues of concern in the present agricultural development literature on Sub-Saharan Africa
What role should FSR projects have in influencing agricultural policy and other macro issues Historically there has been an urban bias in agricultural policies in most WASAT countries To keep food prices low for urban consumers WASAT governments have frequently intervened via parashystatal marketing organizations To compensate farmers for the low product prices these same governments often have provided input subsidies to farmshyers Presently the World Bank and US AID hTje been pressuring WASAT governments to eliminate these input subsidies At least in the short run this will reduce the profitability of agriculture discourage investshyment in agriculture and delay technology adoption Part of the evaluation
23
of new technologies by the FSR program should include some sensitivity analysis to estimate the farm-level effects of various agricultural polishycies including the elimination of input subsidies
In the recent summarv of FSR for the World Bank (Simmonds 1984) a distinction was drawn betweei modifications to present farming systems and entirely new systems of production Improved agronomy with moderate levels of inputs and ultimately introducing new varieties for these improved systems would be in the first category (and see Chapter V for concrete examples) However many of the poorer more marginal environments in the WASAT ultimately will need to gradually withdraw from crop production and move into grazing systems or forestry Crop farming in the WASAT migrated further north after the high rainfall period of the fifties As yield increases are attained in those regions of rainfed aiculture with more potential and in the river valleys and irrigated areas some present crop areas can be returned to more extensive agricultural systems Farming systems research will need to make some decisions about the regions with the most agricultural potential For those truly marginal regions more comprehensive systems changes may be necessary than are customarily evaluated in farming systems research
r-tional policy factors and national agricultural development planshyning cannot be ignored in FSR Many of these macro factors and evolving changes need to be explicitly incorporated into the analysis of which technologies and regions are appropriate for evaluation Nevertheless it is recommended that modeling concentrate on the farm level Without much better micro data and analysis than is presently available in most developshying countries extending farm models to sector analysis seems to be only a training device for economists rather than a useful exercise to enlighten agricultural development planners As the micro-modeling foundation is improved in the next five to ten years the agricultural sector models will be able to give a more useful input into agricultural policy formulation in the WASAT countries
Which agencies should undertake the on-farm testing
FSR presently takes five to ten percent of the budgets of several IARCs (Simmonds 1984 pp 67 68) and the IARCs have generally taken a leadership role in field application of on-farm testing The long-run frequently stated objective of the IARCs is to turn this activity over to the national agricultural research systems (NARC) The rationale is that the on-farm trials give very location-specific results The IARCs can develop methodologies and demonstrate the utilization of new research activities to the NARCs but ultimately larger numbers of on-farm trials in many regions will need to be undertaken in developing countries to evaluate the diverse technologies being produced in the IARCs and NARCs Not only does the scale of this testing make it infeasible for the IARCs to undertake all of it themselves but also much of the testing will be outside the commodity mandates of the individual IARCs
24
The institutional placement of on-farm testing depends upon the relative importance of the two clienteles for the products of the research at a given stage of technology development These two potential clienteles are the extension seryjce and the agricultural researchers On-farm trials which are successful give important information to the extension service and to those public officials involved with agricultural policy On-farm trials which are not successful give feedback on farm-level problems with the technologies to researchers at the experiment stations in both the national and international centers
If the primary emphasis of the on-farm trials needs to be on feedshyback then there are two problems with the present location of most farming systems research in the IARCs First several of the centers put the principal emphasis of their on-farm trials on providing information for the NARCs and the extension services (Simmonds 1985 pp 92-97) Presently there is less concern with feedback from the on-farm trials to IARC reshysearchers on the relevance and problems of the technologies they are developing Organizationally it appears to be very difficult for a divishysion of one institution to ierve for very long as an effective critic of its own activities
Secondly most of the IARCs Pre crop-breeding institutions including CIMMYT IRRI CIAT ICRISAT ICARDA and IITA Two of these centers CIMMYT and IRRI have been very successful in producing new varieties for those environments with adequate assured water availability and moderate to high levels of input utilization However in most of the harsher environments including the WASAT where these conditions are not met improvements in agronomy to attain moderate purchased input levels may need to precede the introduction of new varieties On-farm testing undertaken or financed by the IARCs tends to concentrate on the varietal effect since that is their mandate In these harsher environments institutions other than the IARCs (or even the NARCs which receive IARC assistance of new germ plasm) may need to do the on-farm testing
This on-farm testing in harsher climatic regions such as the WASAT would concentrate first on identifying agronomic improvements ie the combination of measures to improve water retention and soil fertility At a later stage the IARCs and NARCs could develop new varieties for these improved (but not high input) production systems The main points here are that at least in the WASAT stage of agricultural development the princishypal focus of on-farm testing will need to be on feedback to the research station and the principal focus of research on agronomic improvements
On-farm testing can be considered either as the last stage of the agricultural research process befcre passing the innovation on to the Extension Service or the first stage of the Extension process before demonstration trials and active diffusion measures Clearly there needs to be interaction between the NARC and the Extension Service consisting of the regular exchange of information and even planning of the on-farm trials If there is sufficient exchange of information and collaboration
25
in on-farm trial design the institutional location of these trialswill be less important
In summary on-farm trials will need to be undertaken by most agencies involved in agricultural experimentation in the WASAT Communication barriErs are sufficiently large between scientists and farmers that this type of intermediate activity is expected to be necessary for several decades since the IARCs NARCs and other agencies apparently need this source of feedback on the performance of their technologies Since we have been stressing the importance of feedback all through this chapter we argue that the on-farm trials should be located in the research rather than the extension entity so that feedback results are more readily acceptable at the experiment station
As on-farm trials move into the NARCs and are financed by their own internal financial resources lower ccst methods for conducting on-farm trials must be sought These trials tend to be very intensive in their use of highly qualified scientific manpower for planning and evaluation Their execution requires good logistic support and training for a large number of field workers It would appear that in the WASAT external financing and external scientific manpower will be necessary for some time to continue high levels of on-farm testing
Conclusions
Defining farmers constraints to increasing agricultural production is a complicated task best illustrated by example In the conclusions to this report (Chapter VI) we return to this problem to illustrate the conshytribution of the Purdue farming systems project to constraint identification in the WASAT Meanwhile the survey process can be divided into an initial or baseline study which describes the farmers production and household systems and supplementary or diagnostic surveys which invesshytigate particular research areas as they arise For the baseline study the in-depth village-household production and consumption analyses freshyquently undertaken by anthropologists and sociologists seem especially relevant to an understanding of the farming systems in the areas specifishycally targeted for further research activity during the on-farm stage of FSR Supplementary diagnostic 3urveys can then be undertaken in response to specific objectives of th farm-level work especially the on-farm testing of new technclogies These will often be within the disciplinary area of agricultural economists In the modeling stage of the evaluation process there will frequently be a need for supplementary farm business or household information
One primary recommendation here is that the on-farm testing phase of the FSR begin in the first production season Agricultural scientists will generally have a series of recommendations of component parts for farm testing Putting these individual factors together into technology packages and testing them under farmers conditions will help to further develop their understanding of farmers objectives and systems The
26
agricultural scientists will generally have much more interest in field experiments than in the diagnostic surveys In this initial stage of onshyfarm testing the principal direction of information flow will be feedback to the researchers as the packages are expected to have either technical or economic prulblems impeding their acceptance by farmers
Multi-disciplinary collaboration especially between the agricultural scientists and economists is essential for the on-farm testing Agriculshytural scientists know well the mechanics of the testing process Econoshymists understand the farmers objectives Both need to collaborate to understand the interactions and complexities of farmers systems of proshyduction There should be collaboration in research design to avoid replishycating experiment station trials and to obtain the necessary data for economic analysis
On the farm the treatments are generally different systems of production rather than individual factors The analysis proceeds from a statistical analysis of the significance of yield differences to economic concerns with profitability and the fit into the farmers systems of proshyduction The comparison between treatments analyzes the potential benefits to the farmers from new technology adoption since the control is a proxy for the farmers system of production The simplest economic analysis is the evaluation of profitability using partial budgets However this type of analysis is not as simple as it appears because of price variation and the difficulty of attiibutinrg prices to some production factors Generally an attempt is made to overcome these budgeting problems with sensitivity analysis
The final step in the evaluation is to consider the potential fit of the activity irto the farmers systems of production with mathematical proshygramming This whole f=crm analysis simulates the farmers decision-making process by including information on all present and potential activities using the data on on-farm and off-farm resource availabilities New sysshytems of production that pass through all three stages of this evaluation are expected to be adopted by farmers There is some adoption evidence from both Colombia and Burkina Faso supporting the above assertion
In the harsh envirarunent of the WASAT given the very low utilization of purchased inputs at present marginal agronomic changes such as density timing or even varietal change are expected to have little or even negashytive impact Larger systems changes involving technologies which simultaneously augment water conservation and soil fertility are hypothesized as necessary in order to raise yields sufficiently so that these new systems not only yield more than farmers practices on their own fields but also are profitable and fit into farmers production systems
National economic and agricultural policies can have a large impact on technology evaluation and even the planning of FSR Policymakers need to be concerned with creating an environment in which farmers can make money from adopting new technologies In the short run in the WASAT the
27
elimination of input subsidies especially if ceilings are retained for product prices will make it more difficult for farmers to profit from new technology adoption By evaluating the impact of different agricultural and economic policies on the farm-level profitability and potential adopshytion of new technologies the FSR program may be able to help influence governmental policy formation
Another impact of national policy is on agricultural development planning Frequently FSR programs are designed for marginal agricultural areas Alternatives to developing technologies for these regions may be public health investments in river valleys and yield-improving strategies in the dryland regions with better agricultural resources If yields can be sufficiently improved for the higher resource regions some shifting into livestock or even forestry may be appropriate land-use decision for the more marginal agricultural areas For these types of land-use changes government would need to finance the human resettlement costs Change in agricultural activities of this magnitude are not generally included in FSR Hence Simmonds (1984 p 121) developed a new term for it New Farming Systems Develonment (NFSD)
In the WASAT a prerequisite to new variety development appears to be the simultaneous utilization of moderate input levels to improve water retention and soil fertility Once these agronomic improvements are in place new variety introduction is expected to have more potential for sucshycess than at the present time Some of the on-farm trials in the WASAT may need to be underjgken by agencies whose principal activity is not new variety development
The on-farm testing can be either the final step in the research proshycess of the NARC IARC or other research institution or the fi t step in the Extension Service before demonstration trials or other disL mination activities The institutional location should depend upon whether the prishymary product is feedback on technology improvement to experiment station researchers or feedforward of technologies to be disseminated by the Extension Service Since the process of feedback to researchers is conshysidered to be the most important objective of on-farm testing in the early stages of agricultural technology development in the WASAT our institushytional preference for the location of these trials is with the national agricultural research centers (NARCs) rather than the national extension service The scientists in the on-farm trials will know how to convince the scientists on the experiment station of the validity of their results Some of them may even fulfill algual role working on both the experiment station and the on-farm trials As more technology is validated in the on-farm trials and can move on to the Extension Service the returns to investments in the institutional ties between the NARCs and the Extension Service will be increased
28
FOOTNOTES
This type of infrmation flow is customarily referred to as feedback
Farming Systems and other research programs also attempt to provideinformation on new technologies to farmers and extension agents Anyagricultural research program ult imately needs to have an impact on the well-being of farmers in order to survive Since the economic imporshytance of this directional flow of information to farmers is obvious we consider it to be more importlant to stress here the importance of the feedback to researchers so that they are more effective in doing their job ie producing new technologies
2 Dillon (1976 pp 6-7) contrasts philosophic differences of scientific
investigation into two approaches Reduc t ionism implied reducingphenomena to their more basic (and hopefully independent) parts analyzshying these parts as independent entities to explain their behavior and then aggregating these explanations as an explanation of the phenomenon under study Reductionism abetted and fostered the proliferation of specialized deafness and tunnel vision in form of independentthe scienshytific disciplines
Since the fifties reductionism has been increasingly seen as an inadequate basis for science to either understand or to manipulate and control its environment An alternative approach is the systems or holistic approach This is a multi-disciplinary approach in which explanation then proceeds in terms of the role or function of the part in the Larger system(s)
Clearly heshe will be exposed to all the other types of constraints but disciplinary blinders often exist especially for those involved in their own research programs
4 A recent international agricultural research center meeting for the planniig of on-farm trials in Africa concluded that the initial descripshytion and diagnostic activity of the FSR should be rapidly implemented so that a crop season for experimentation is not lost (unpublished summaryof meeting notes ILRAD Oct 1984) Diagnosticsurvey activities and farm-level experimentation can continue simultaneously In fact the farm-level experimentation will require additional diagnosticsurvey activities to evaluate the Economic potential of the new technology
The diagnostic surveys of economists have not been nearly as useful for a comprehensive understanding of the farming and household systems as those of the anthropologists Howev-r the utility of the economist on multi-disciplinary teams to undertake and evaluate on-farm trials has been repeatedly demonstrated and is now widely if not universally acshycepted (Simmonds 1984 pp 24 71-75 125) The other social scienshytists have not yet demonstrated their capacity to work on these types of teams They appear to be in the position of defining their role a position similar to that of the economists about a decade earlier
29
6 Generally soil fertility is higher on the experiment station and the
incidence of anddiseases insects is greater than on the surrounding farms due to the repeated intensive cultivation of the same crops Howshyever on the experiment station the high levels of non-treatment inputs such as agricultural chemicals can reduce the levels of insects disshyeases and weeds to levels even lower than on the farmers fields For farmers these levels of chemical control are often not profitable
Occasionally the impact of one or two components will be estimated as with fertilization and tied ridges (a water-conservation technique) alone and in combination in the Burkina Faso FSU program
8 If the weeding is not done opportunely there can often be a yield
decline Moreover all farms in a given region will be performing these types of operations at approximately the same time Hence it will be very difficult for farmers to hire temporary labor away from their famshyily operations So the implicit value or productivity of the family labor becomes very high in these particular tasks at certain critical times
9 A more comprehensive agricultural policy analysis would include the macro effect of new technology introduction on prices as is done in agriculture sector models But because so many other structural changes are occurring at the same time this price effect is not considered to be very important at least in the initial stages of technology development
10 Those advocating these types of planting density date or other culshy
tural system change generally are expecting yield increases of only 10 to 20 This type of yield increase is very difficult for the farmer to see and could easily disappear as on-farm trials change from researcher to farmer management New agronomic system changes are expected to take time for farmers to master if a series of component part changes are implied andor timeliness of the relevant operations is also important Hence the yield differences of these minimal changes even if they truly exist will often disappear in the learning-by-doing effect
11 Once farmers are utilizing moderate purchased input levels it will be
very important to systematically evaluate the im-pact of these marginal changes especially new varieties and more intensive cropping systems
12 By removing all input subsidies and other price distortions or intervenshy
tions governments and international agencies can calculate the real resource cost of various alternative policies and ascertain their comshyparative advantage in international production This analysis assumes that the re are no differences between private and public benefits or between private and social costs Hence there are no externalities in the system
30
Removing these price and cost distortions will facilitate economic calculations and in the long run welfare gains are expected In the short run the elimination of input subsidies is expected to sharply slow down the agricultural developmenc process and to put upward presshysure on agricultural product prices and the demand for agricultural import substitutes Developed country exporters of agricultural proshyducts would be the principal beneficiaries of higher agricultural import levels in the developing countries
13 In the river valleys and irrigated regions human health constraints may be the principal factor limiting agricultural development River blindshyness has been a serious problem in many of the Burkina Faso river valshyleys An erradiation program has now at least temporarily eliminated this problem In the irrigation projects the widespread incidence of bilharzia substantially reduces labor productivity
14 By successful we mean passing the three evaluation criteria recommended
in Figure 5 Clearly agricultural scientists will also be interested in those technologies being passed on to the Extension Service for diffusion We are stressing here their interest in feedback in order to resolve those problems in their technologies which came to their attenshytion because of the results of the on-farm trials
15 We would expect that those agencies principally concerned with varietal
development would emphasize varietal testing in their on-farm trials The on-farm trials are important activities for institutions primarily concerned with breeding Nevertheless a third party such as a univershysity may be necessary in order to carry out the farm trials without preconceived notions which would emphasize certain varieties or other types of technology
16 The differences are so great between the experiment station and the
farm-level definitions of constraints and relevant research problems that one of the field agronomists from this project even proposed that all agricultural scientists working on the experiment stations in the WASAT should have some involvement with on-farm trials
CHAPTER IV
PRODUCTION CONSTRAINTS OF THE WASAT FARMING SYSTEMS
The WASAT is not as well endowed with a climate or soil resource base as most of the populated areas of the world This chapter elaborates on the major physical and resource endowment constraints of the WASAT and describes cropping patterns farmers goals and objectives and modern input use
Climate
The WASAT region is a transition zone betwien the northern desert and the humid tropics of the south There are three distinct seasons warm and dry from November to March hot and dry during March through May and hot and wet from May to October Harmattan conditions (hot dry dustshyladen winds) exist during the November to March period
Rainfall in the May to October agricultural season over the entire WASAT ranges from 200 mm in the north to 1300 mm in the south with potenshytial evapotranspiration ranging between 2200 mm in the north to 1600 mm in the south (Nicou and Charreau 1985) Since the mid-sixties annual rainshyfall has averaged 100 to 150 mm below the long-term average within each isohyet (Dancette 1977) Thus the isohyet levels delineating the climatic zones in Figure 1 would be at lower levels if more recent rainfall data were used
Rainfall is extremely variable over time and over space Nicholson (1982) states that in normal rainfall years 40 to 50 of individual weather stations experience below-normal rainfall Rainfall vaiiabiltty at individual stations ranges from 15 of the long-term average in the south to 50 in the north (Nicholson 1982) Also the number of below-normal years tend to exceed the number of wet years The long-term average rainshyfall is inflated by a few extremely wet years (Nicholson 1982) The area also has a long history of intermittent droughts and wet spells
Soil Fertility and Water Retention
Soils in the WASAT are predominantly sandy red alfisols low in organic matter and exchangeable cations with a soil texture high in sand (60-95) anO low in silt and clay content (Matlon 1985 Nicou and Charreau 1985) The soils tend to be deficient in phosphorous and nitroshygen Long fallow periods can restore soil fertility but phosphorous and nitrogen deficiency symptoms have been observed shortly after the land is put into cultivation (IFDC 1985) The phosphorous sorption capacity of WASAT soils vary widely but is generally low decreasing the agronomiceffectiveness of phosphate fertilizers (IFDC 1985) Nitrogen can be quickly exhausted in these fragile poorly buffered soils (IFDC 1985) The soils contain only weak aggregates and in many regions the soil surface
32
dries after a rain and forms a crust which restrict water infiltration and aeration (Kowal and Kassam 1978) These soil properties combined with high intensity rainfall lead to water retention and erosion problems In the dry season the soils harden making pre-plant cultivation difficult and almost impossible by traditional methods until there is a major rain (Kowal and Kassam 1978)
The quality of the land in terms of fertility and organic matter conshytent varies greatly in tarmers fields Land quality and soil water retenshytion are highly correlated with topography and distance from the compound area around the living quarters The quality and water retention ability of the soil deteriorates as one moves farther up the toposequence and away from the compound area thus requiring different cropping and management strategies by the farmer (Stoop et al 1982)
Although more productive vertisols and hydromorphic soils are found along river valleys the presence of Onchoceriasis (river blindness) in many of the river valleys has made them uninhabitable in the past
Labor Availability
Labor shortages exist in the critical planting and weeding periods (FSUSAFGRAD 1983) Planting of millet and sorghum begins with the first significant rains in May or June This is followed by rice groundnut and maize planting in combination with the sorghum and millet first weeding activities Depending on the level and distribution of rainfall fields may require resowing transplanting andor thinning Usually a second and at times a third weeding will follow Most of the plantingfirst weeding period occurs over a six-week time period with the household supshyplying the labor
When farmers were asked why they did not hire more labor for first weeding their reply was Because there is no one to hire then everyone is busy with their own weeding (FSUSAFCRAD 1983) Households do not genershyally hire labor from other households because cash and food reserves at this time of year are at their lowest and not sufficient to pay laborers a wage rate (or its equiyalent in food) equal to the opportunity cost of working their own land Also few laborers are in the labor market at this time because households have control of their family labor and utilize it for their own production needs (Kowal amp Kassam 1978)
Cropping Patterns
Cereal production is the dominant agricultural activity in the WASAT (Kowal and Kassam 1978) Regional cropping patterns in the WASAT differ-shythe most notable difference being the increasing dominance of millet over sorghum maize and root crops as soil fertility and rainfall decrease from south to north About 80 of the cropped area in the WASAT is intershycropped--cerealcereal and cereallegume are the most common (Fussell and Serafini 1985 Sawadogo et al 1985) Cowpeas are usually intercropped
33
with millet or sorghum at low densities of 1000 to 8000 plants per hectare The main cash crops in the south include cotton groundnuts and bambara nuts Small amounts of rice are grown in the bottom lands and irrigated areas
At the farm level land quality the water retention ability of the soil and labor availability are the dominant factors in farmers cropping decisions (Lang et al 1983) The staple crops of maize sorghum and millet receive the highest priority of land and labor resources Drought tolerance of the crops are matched with soil fertility and toposequence Maize which is less tolerant to drought and low soil fertility than either sorghum or millet is planted near the villagle compound on the more-fertile compound field This field ranging in size from 1 to 2 ha is used as a dump for night soil animal manure stubble and other organic material Sorghum is planted on the lower areas where there is slightly more water accumulation and where the soils are more fertile than the poorer soils further up the toposequence (Stoop et al 1982) The more abundant but poorer land is planted to millet which has the most tolerance to drought and low soil fertility Farmers say that in the worst rainfall years some millet can always be harvested
Millet and sorghum can be found growing in the next higher soil fershytility gradient than is dictated by their drought tolerance ability but maize and sorghum are rarely grown on a lower soil fertility gradient Farmers say that white sorghum is preferred because it stores twice as long as millet however more sorghum is not sown because of limited good qualshyity land and because sorghum is more vulnerable to parasites such as striga Maize and sorghum planting is thus constrained by the availability of high quality land whereas the millet area is constrained by the labor supply in the plantingfirst weeding period
In the old settlement areas cereal yields are declining in response to lower soil fertility caused by the decrease in the fallow period and lower average rainfall over the last decade (Lang et al 1984) As the soil fertility declines sorghum is being replaced by millet which yields better on the poorer soils Farmers in the village of Nedogo say that much more sorghum was planted in the village when they were young than is planted now (Ames 1986)
Farmer Goals and Objectives
Norman (1982) states that the most important differences among farming systems come from the constraints peculiar to the region and not from difshyferences in farmer aspirations (which include higher incomes effort reducshytion and risk avoidance) Farmers in older settlement areas have conshystraints and endowments which differ from those of farmers in frontier villages Farmers in the older settlement areas of Burkina where access to land is limited and soil fertility low indicated uniformly that their only goal was subsistence (FSUSAFGRAD 1983) This means harvesting enough sorghum and millet in November to feed their families until the beginning
34
of the August maize harvest that provides food during the hungry period-shythe period between ending cereal stocks and the new harvest (FSUSAFGRAD 1983) When asked to specify other goals and objectives the first priorshyity was the payment of a head tax and if resources remained meetingurgent needs which were listed as medical Other priorities were to reward the family with clothes for their work during the cropping season and to greet their in-laws or arrange marriages (FSUSAFGTAD 1983)
On the frontier where access to fallow land is notl limited half of the farmers gave subsistence oriented responses that were similar to the responses given in the older settlement areas However half of the farmshyers responded that We were once concerned only with survival but now we also think of accumulating wealth When asked What is wealth they replied cattle (FSUSAFGRAD 1983)
The survey results indicated that although farmers in the WASAT in general are subsistence oriented the goals and objectives of farmers difshyfer given different constraints This is evidenced by the total subsisshytence orientation of the sample of farmers in the old settlement villages versus the orientation of those farmers in the frontier village who indishycated wealth accumulation as one of their main goals Higher soil fertilshyity and access to land at the frontier has permitted farmers to look beyond subsistence goals This appears to demonstrate that if through technologshyical introduction some of the constraints to increasing yield in the WASAT can be alleviated the aspirations of farmers will allow technology adopshytion to occur (at some level of profit effort and risk)
Modern Input Use
Except for tuie higher rainfall regions of the Sudano-Guinean region and some river valleys credit and modern inputs such as fertilizer pestishycides herbicides and improved varieties are not widely used in the WASAT Even in these regions of higher rainfall purchased input utilization is concentrated on the export crops cotton and groundnuts FAO fertilizer statistics indicate that NPK use in eight Sahelian countries averaged less than 3 kgha as compared to 73 kgha in Asia (Matlon 1985) Less than 15 of farmers use animal traction in the WASAT (Matlon and Spencer 1985) Animal traction is used for shallow land preparation plowing and shallow weeding but utilization rates are low and farmers seldom are equipped to do more than one mechanized operation (Jaeger 1985)
Neither input nor product marketing infrastructure nor a research and extension service similar to that developed for cash crops in the WASAT pre-independence era (pre-1960) was ever developed for food crops In the Colonial period food requirements were met by the subsistence-oriented agricultural system There was little export demand for food crops such as sorghum and millet (World Bank 1985) Since the late 1960s however rapid population growth and lower food crop yields due to lower rainfall levels and declining soil fertility have substantially increased food crop
35
demand to the point where food security is not assured in most regions of the WASAT Expanding cereal imports have accompanied this trend
Even with the population pressure and increased food demand since independence an input and product marketing infrastructure for food crops has not developed Poor fertility 3oils erratic rainfall distribution and low soil water retention have led to highly variable between-year yield responses to many land-substituting inputs For example the response of fertilizer is highly dependent upon the availability of sufficient water at several critical periods Thus fertilizer utilization can be very risky Similarly iroved varieties have not dcne well under traditional manageshyment conditions (Matlon 1985)
Labor-saving animal traction technology is not widely used in the WASAT in spite of potentially high ratc of return Present internal rates of return of 10 in old settlement areas (Nedogo) and 20 to 30 at the frontier (Diapangou) have been estimated but higher rates of return could be achieved with higher utilization rates principally through expansion of the number of mechanized agricultural operations (Jaeger 1985) Most animal traction farms observed in Burkina Faso mechanized either the land preparation or the cultivation operations but not both Problems of obtaining high utilization rates stein from small size farms inapproprishyate andor incomplete set of implements poor animal health and nucrition and poor management (Jaeger and Sanders 1985) Higher utilization rates and the full benefit of mechanization are not obtained by first-time animal traction users because learning curves can be as long as five years (Jaeger and Sanders 1985) Few animal traction extension programs exist which train farmers and draft animals and thus facilitate animal traction usage
In summary low soil fertility and low soil water retention low variable and unpredictable rainfall in combination with a high evapotransshypiration rate labor shortages in the critical planting and weeding periods and the limited access to land in old settlement areas are the major physical and resource endowment constraints to increased cereal yields in most of the WASAT (Matlon 1985 Nagy et al 1985 Lang et al 1984) The physical environment makes new technology adoption in the WASAT risky The national research institutions extension and input and product marketing infrastructures to support new technology adoption and dissemination are at a low level Thus farming systems on the frontier continue to be bush-fallow systems that rely on available land and family labor inputs with little utilization of purchased inputs Farming systems in the older settled area have been shifting to more millet production and yields have declined and stabilized at low levels
Despite the current situation in the WASAT recent research findings suggest that a Malthusian perspective can be iverted Several on-farm evaluated technologies have been shown to be both agronomically and economshyically feasible in increasing cereal production and others have promise for the future A review of the proposed technologies and farm management practices for the WASAT is the subject of the next chapter
36
Footnotes
Whole farm modeling results indicate opportunity costs of labor in the
last two weeks of the plantingfirst weeding period to be 365 and 181 FGFAhr respectively for manual tillage farmers which is in contrast to the wage rate of 30 to 50 FCFAhr (Roth et al 1986)
CHAPTER V
TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT TO INCREASE CEREAL PRODUCTION IN THE WASAT
Introduction
This chapter reviews the technologies and farm management techniques that have been proposed for alleviating the production constraints in the WASAT This review uses agronomic and socio-economic data and information frGn the Purdue FSU piogram supplemented by other research from the area The FSU program conducted research in three climatic zones with village research sites in the southern portion of the Sahelo-Sudanian zone in the Sudanian zone and in the northern portion of the Sudano-Guinean climatic zone (Figure 2) Thus FSU findings and the review of most of the techshynolog0ies and recommendations reflect this orientation
As each technology is discussed it is evaluated as to the feasibility of its utilization by farmers within the short run (0 to 5 years) the intermediate run (5 to 15 years) and the long run The criteria used in the evaluation attempt to follow the strategy used by farmers in their adoption process (see Figure 5 in Chapter III and Table 1 in this chapter)
Socio-economic research suggests that farmers do not necessarily adopt technologies as a package but rather adopt single technologies or clusters of technologies en route to total package adoption (Byerlee and Hesse de Polanco 1986 Mann 1978) This is in spite of the fact that the largest impact on yields comes about when various methods (technologies) are used in combinition or as a package The farmers strategy seems to be to adopt the technologies of the package sequentially based on availability technical viability in the field economic profitability and risk conshysiderations and the resource endowment fit of the technology (ie labor and land constraints) within the farming system The technologies within the package that best exhibit the above attributes will be selected first by the farmer Other technologies will be added only after the farmer has had positive experience with the already adopted technologies and when the above attribute requirements are again met Thus while farmers can be presented with a package of technologies there seems to be an agronomically and economically logical sequence by which technological adoption will occur Information on the likely adoption pattern sequence of proposed technologies is important for focusing research extension and government programs
In this chapter available agronomic technical and socio-economic research findings are used to review and sequence the proposed technologies and farm management practices for the WASAT For example research findings from on-station and on-farm research trials are used to assess technical viablity in the field Economic budget analysis and benefit-cost
38
Table 1 Present technical and economic feasibility and time frame of proposed technologies and farm management practices for the WASAT
Technologies Present Ayronomic and Technical Feasibility Present and Farm Mgmt On-Station On-Farm Economic
Practices Research Research Feasibility Comments
Available technologies for the short run
Tied ridging (manual) +++ Very labor intensive Diguettesdikes 3 Require materials (ie rocks) Complex fertilizer ++ Risk of losing cash outlayAnimal traction 3 ++ Preconditions (see text) Mechanical ridge tier +++ ++ Requires animal traction
Potential technologies for the intermediate run Rock phosphate + - Solubility amp application problems Improved varieties ++ + - Requires upgrading of physical
environment
Potential technologies for the long run Manurecomposting +++ ++ Small and finite supply Mulch +++ ++ Small and finite supply Plowinggreen manuring ++ ++ - Poor draft animal health
Herbicides ++ ++ - Further research requiredBiol nitrogen fixation + - Further research requir Crop associations - intensification ++ + - Requires upgrading of physical - alley cropping ++ + - environment and improved
varieties Labor and management
intensive
++ High degree of feasibility--research supports a very good agronomic response or is technically very
feasible ++ Feasible--good agronomic response or technically feasible + Limited feasibility--agronomic results often inconsistent - Not feasible--little evidence to support a good agronomic response or technical feasibility
HaHighly profitable at present
= Profitable at present = Not always profitable at pres(ent
- NHot economically feasible at present
3 Not researched at the on-station level
4 Can be feasible for sole cropping but problems with mixture of broad and slender leaf plants in crop associations
39
ratios are used to determine economic profitability Research irial results and the incidence of cash outlay loss are used to assess risk Whole farm modeling and labor data analysis is used to indicate the fit of the technolshyogy within the farming systems Farmers views and comments are also incorporated
Once the technologies and farm management practices are reviewed and sequenced for either the short intermediate or long run the discussion in this chapter turns to identifying available technologies--first for the present cereal-based farming systems and second for a future more intenshysified farming system The technologies available for use in the present farming systems are then further sequenced on a recommendation domain basis
Proposed Technologies for the WASAT
The research that has been carried out in the WASAT aimed at overcomshying climatological and physical constraints and labor endowment shortages is discussed under the hicadings 1) soil fertilitywater retention techshynologies 2) labor-saving technologies 3) improved varietal research and 4) crop associations Table 1 presents a summary of the technical and ecoshynomic feasibility evaluation and a time frame for the availability of the proposed technologies and farm management practices
1) Soil FertilityWater Retention Technologies
Tied Ridges Tied ridging technology was introduced in the 1950s in West Africa (Dagg and Macartney 1968) On-station and on-farm research has shown that tied ridges significantly increase yields (Nicou and Charreau 1985 Dugue 1985 Rodriguez 1982 Ohm et al 1985a and 1985b) (see Photograph 5 page 41) FSU on farm researcher-managed (TR constructed both at and one month after planting) and farmer-managed trials (TR conshystructed 4-6 weeks after planting) have shown significant yield increases and economic returns to the additional labor required for TR on maize sorghum (Table 2 column 2) and millet (FSU 1983 Annual Report 1983 Lang et al 1984 and Ohm et al 1985a and 1985b) Manual tying of ridges is very labor intensive The manual tying of ridges constructed with animal traction requires at least 40 man hoursha (with very efficient laborers) and on average 75 man hoursha whereas constructing TR completely by hand requires at least 100 hoursha (Ohm et al 1985b) (see Photograph 6 page 41)
PJshy
-no pre-plant soil itillage no fertilization Soil scarification with animal traction~Woman planting millet by traditional manual method
-
Left fertilization right no fertilization foreground droughty area in field shy a typical view in the Central Manual construction of tiec oges in researcher-managed trial - mulch applied to somePlateau plots
D II
A
FSU researcher managed trials near Poedogo Water entrapment in depressions resulting from tied ridgesa No fertilization construction of tied ridges at plantingb No fertilization construction of tied ridges one month after plantingc No fertilization without tied ridges d Fertilization and tied ridges
Ad T7 Z
Farmer-managed plots - Left traditional method no fertilization and no tied ridging right fertilization Farmer-managed trials - Left foreground mulch applied no fertilization nor construciion of tied ridgesand tied ridging Right foreground fertilization and contruction of tied ridges one month after planting Background farmshyers traditionally managed field
43
Construction of tied ridges with mechanical ridge tier FSU researcher managed trial Background maize intershycropped with cowpeas fertilized with construction of tiedridges at planting Foreground maize intercropped with cowshypeas no fertilization nor construction of tied ridges
43 - a
Table 2 Economic analysis of farmer-managed trials of sorghum with fertilizer and tied ridges Nedogo and Diapangou 1983 and 1984
1 Treatments
C TR F TRF Nedogo 1984 Manual Traction
Grain Yield kgha 2 157 416 431 652
Yield Gain Above Control kgha - 259 274 495
Gain in Net Revenue FCFAha 3 - 23828 13275 33607
Returnhr of Additional Labor FCFA4 238 140 172- Farmers Whio Would Have Lost Cash - 0 27 9
1aedogo 1983 Manual Traction Grain Yield kgha 430 484 547 851 Yield Gain Above Control kgha - 54 117 421 Gain in Net Revenue FCFAha - 3510 -2285 17475 Returnhr of Additional Labor FCFA - 35 - 90 Farmers Who Would Have Lost Cash - 0 66 0
Diapangou 1984 Donkey Traction Grain Yield kgha 498 688 849 1133 Yield Gain Above Control kgha - 190 351 635 Gain in Net Revenue FCFAha - 17480 20359 46487 Returnhr of Additional Labor FCFA - 233 214 273 Farmers Who Would Have Lost Cash shy 0 21 0
Diapangou 1983 Donkey Traction Grain Yield kgha 481 522 837 871 Yield Gain Above Control kgha - 71 356 390 Gain in Net Revenue FCFAha - 6532 20819 23947Returnhr of Additional Labor FCFA - 87 219 141 Farmers Who Would Have Lost Cash - 0 16 12
Source Ohm et al 19851) and Lang et al 1984 Similar results were obtained at three other sites in Burkina
1 C = Control (no tied ridges or fertilizer) TR = tied ridges constructed at second weeding F = fertilizer 100 kgha 14-23-15 applied in band 10-15 cm from row at first weeding plus 50 gla urea applied in pockets 10-15 cm from seed pockets at second weeding
2 The standard error and CV (in parentheses) starting with Nedogo 1984 and conshy
tinUing through to Diapangon 1983 are 75 (43) 121 (29) 46 (18) and 43 (22) respectively Net Revenue = yield gaiii x grain price (65 and 92 FCFAkg in 1983 and 1984) minus fertilizer cost (62 and 78 CFAkg for 14-23-15 and 60 and 66 FCFAkg for urea in 1983 and 1984--fertili C prices are subsidized 40 to 50) Includes interest rate charge for six months at rate of 15 1 US dollar = 381 FCFA in 1983 and 436 FCFA in 1984 Net Revenue + additional labor of tied ridging and fertilizer application Manual and donkey traction require 100 and 75 hours of additional laborha for tied ridging respectively Fertilizer application requires 95 additional hoursha
44
Tied ridge construction has the advantage that no cash outlay is reshyquired if family labor is utilized However a survey of technology adoption by farmers in FSU villages indicated that the number of farmers constructing tied ridges and the hectarage of tied ridge construction outshyside the trial plots were small--an average of 032 hectaresfarmer with the largest being 10 hectare (Ohm et a] 1985b) When questioned farmers indicated that thev would like to construct more TR but they did not have sufficient family Iabo I ir ing from an outside labor pool is limited at the time tied ridges mu be coumstructed because the active labor force of all households is fully occupied with work in their own fields Linear programming representative farm models (Table 3 column 2) also indicate that labor availab i i ty const rainos prevent the manual tying of animal traction constructed ridges from beilng ut ilized on the entire farm
Another limitation is that tied ridging does not work well on sandy soils because the ties tend to break down in heavy rain Nevertheless aim estimated 40 of the presently cultivated land in Burkina and 15 in Mali appears to be suitable for tied ridging This represents 12 million hecshytares (Burns 1985) Tied ridges have been shown to be both agronomically and economicaly feasih Ic as a technology applicable at the present time to increase cereal product ion in the WASAT However the labor constraint requires a search for labor- saving technoloies
I)iguettesdikes There are various water conservationerosion methods in addition to tied ridges that are or could be used in the WASAT The construction of diguettes although not as effective in retaining water as tied ridges is a water conservation method that has been investigated Diguettes are barriers 10 to 15 cm high mainly made of rocks and placed on field contour lines 10 to 50 meters apart The barriers are permeable ard slow rainfall runoff to allow for increased infiltration They have imshyproved water retention and signiicantly increased yields in the norther[ (Yatenga) region of Burkina (Wright 1985) This technology has the advarshytage that it can be constructed in off peak labor periods with family labor and is not as labor intensive as tied ridging However rocks (the prinshycipal material) or other material in some regions are not available to conshystruct the diguettes Economic analysis indicates that the returns in the first year alone are greater than the labor bill (at the going wage rate) of constructing the diguettes In Burkina Faso local government agencies have constructed large dikes and barriers to control water flow at the village level Although diguettes and other forms of water retention and control require further research thme large dikes and diguettes are technologies that could be used at present
Complex Themical Fertilizers Under on-station and on-farm conditions significant yield increases for maize sorghum and millet have been obtained using complex mineral fertilizers (Pieri 1985 Ohm et al 1985b FSU Annual Reports) Yield response to fertilizer is however highly variable between sites and years (Spencer 1985) Nevertheless some researchers sugsest that continuous cropping using chemical fertilizers is potentially possible in the WASAT (see Pier 1985 p 77 for a literature review
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
45
Table 3 Whole farm modeling analysis of tied ridging with donkey tracshytion Central Plateau Burkina Faso
Tied-Ridging Technology Traditional Tied with Machine Management Tied by Two One
Variable (donkey) Hand Passes Pass -------------------- hectares---------------------
Total Area Cultivated 55 56 56 55 Maize
Traditional 20 - - -With Tied Ridges 20 20 20
Red Sorghum Traditional 60 - - -With Tied Ridges 60 60 60
White Sorghum Traditional 80 51 With Tied Ridges 29 80 80
Millet Traditional 318 315 315 184 With Tied Ridges - 33 164
Peanuts 76 85 53 43
Total Cereals Production ---------------------- kgs------------------------Per Househol 2103 2436 2651 2737 Per Resident 150 174 189 196
Net Farm Income 3 000s FCFA-------------------Per Household 2153 2462 2535 2622 Per Worker 308 352 362 375
1 Labor times of 75 man hoursha for tying of the ridges by hand 20 man
hoursha to machine tie with two passes and 2 aan hours to machine tie with one pass Yield estimates in kgsha for traditional practices and the technical intervention of tied ridging are as follows maize (1090 to 1730) red sorghum (672 to 940) white sorghum (472 to 660) and milshylet (320 to 415) 1985 fertilizer and grain prices were used
2 Based on 14 residentshousehold Annualized cost of 4400 FCFA for tied-ridging machine subtracted in colshyumns 3 and 4 Based on 7 active workershousehold
46
and references) Decreases in yield and fertilizer efficiency however have been observed after two to five years of continuous cropping where organic matter has not been incorporated into the soil (Pieri 1985)
In Burkina Faso on-farm researcher-managed trials indicate that the response of maize yields to tertilizer on the relatively high fertilitycompound soils was not economically profitable (1982 FSU Annual Report 1983) On-farm farmer-managed trials indicated that fertilizer can be profitable when using fertilizer alone on sorghum (Table 2 column 3) There is however considerable risk for the farmer of losing the cash outshylay when fertilizer is used alone as demonstrated by the percentage of farmers who would have lost cash in Table 2 column 3 Both yield and profitability substantially inicrease however when tied ridges and fertilshyizer are used in combination as indicated in Table 2 column 4 Also as shown in column 4 the risk of losing the cash outlay from the purchase of fertilize substantially decreases when fertilizer and TR are used in comshybination Fertilizer in combination with TR for millet on millet land has also been shown to be profitable with only a modera e risk of farmers losshying the fertilizer cash outlay (Ohm et al 1985a)
A survey of four FSU villages in Burkina indicated a range of fertilshyizer use )n cereals from zero farmers in the sample of the northern village of Bangasse to 33 of the farmers in the southern village sample from Poedogo which has better land and higher rainfall In the more northern region fertilizer use is riskier due to lower and more erratic rainfall Average hectarage fertilized in the villages that used fertil zer ranged from 034 ha at Nedogo to 3 ha at Poedogo (Ohm et al 1985b) Although the use rate per hectare was not established field staff indicated it was substantially lower than the 100 kga of 14-23-15 fertilizer applied to most of the FSU trials in the villages
The evidence to date on fertilizer use in the WASAT suggests that comshyplex fertilizers are a technolegy that can be used at present but yields are highly variable and the incidence of fertilizer cash outlay loss by farmers is high unless combined with a water retention technique such as TR The risk of losing cash decreases in the higher soil fertility and higher rainfall areas Empirical evidence also suggests that fertilizer use or water retention techniques such as TR when used alone can be economshyically feasible but that when used together the profitability substanshytially increases Moreover the number of farmers losing cash decreases subFstantially as compared with the fertilizer only strategy
Indigenous Rock Phosphate The benefits of using indig ous rock phosphate deposits in the WASAT are potentially appealling in terms of logistcs transportation cost advantages and foreign exchange savings Workable deposits occur in Senegal Mali Niger Togo Benin Nigeria and Burkina Faso On-station and on-farm trials have however found the rock phosphate to have solubility problems (IFDC 1985 Pieri 1985) The comshybination of the low P release in a water-soluble form that is readily available for use by plants aid the low I-sorption capacity of the WASAT soils have resulted in poor agronomic performance from rock phosphate applications There is little or no potential for direct application of WASAT rock phosphate with the possible exception of the Mali (Tilemsi) and Niger (Tahoual) deposits (IFDC 1985)
47
Two methods are used to increase the agronomic effectiveness of rock phosphate One method is to highly granulate the rock and the other method is acidulation Even when highly granulated the agronomic effrectiveness is low and several years of consecutive applications are required before significant yield increases are observed (IFDC 1985 FSU Annual Reports) After several years of application benefit-cnst ratios were still lower than other sources of phosphorous (IFDC 1985)
Four years of FSU on-farm farmer-managed trials in Burkina Faso using highly granulated Burkina rock phosphate (100 kgha rock phosphate with 50 kgha urea applied each year on the same plots) also indicated low benefitshycost ratios Benefit-cost ratios of less than one with a 50 subsidized rock phosphate price were obtained (Unpublished FSU data) In the same experiment benefit-cost ratios of 13 were obtained from a rock phosphate tied ridging treatment but the benefit-cost ratio decreased to 069 when unsubsidized prices were used FSU cooperator farmers did not like using the rock phosphate due to its poor agronomic performance and application problems due to its highly granulated form
IFDC has developed two processes for the partial acidulation of rock phosphate Acidulation with sulfuric or phosphoric acid converts the calshycium phosphate into a more soluble form Research on the agronomic effecshytiveness of partially acidulated rock phosphate in the WASAT has given conshyflicting results (Batiano et al 1985) Inconsistent results were obtained by FSU with 50 acidulated Burkina rock phosphate in a one year on-farm researcher-managed trial with sorghum and millet (Ohm et al 1985a) The partially acidulated rock phosphate is also highly granulated giving rise to farmer application problems
Few economic studies of acidulated rock phosphate are available for the WASAT When compared with single superphosphate the relative economic performance of acidulated rock phosphate on millet in Niger is generally lower but is not consistent across sites or years (IFDC 1985)
To be agronomically and economically feasible the solubility problems of rock phosphate will have to be overcome The present effectiveness of acidulation requires further on-farm testing Once rock phosphate became agronomically and economically feasible fertilizer plants and distribution networks would require several years to develop A source of sulfuric or phosphoric acid at economically feasible prices is also required (Pieri 1985) Thus rock phosphate appears to be a technology most appropriate in the intermediate run after the technical problems of solubility and applishycation are resolved economically at the farm level
Animal Manure and Compost Manure and compost are already being used effectively on fields near the compound although application and composting techniques could be more efficient (Pieri 1985 Table 11) The principal constraint to the increased use of manuring and composting is their finite supply Few organic waste materials are left once the household and animal feed requirements are met Manure availability will increase only when animals are penned to make collection possible However cattle are grazed on fallow land away from the living quarters and the labor involved in conshyfined rearing of animals is too great Cattle are also entrusted to herdshyers because of feed shortages close to the village As fallow land
48
declines in the old settlement areas it will be increasingly difficult to support cattle near the village and in the area in general
While animal manure and composting are agronomically and economically feasible for use around the compound area at present they do not representfarm management practices that will substantially increase cereal producshytion in the WASAT in the short and intermediate run because of their finite supply Their potential will only be realized in the long run when the farming system evolves from the dominant cereal-based system to a more intensive cereal-foragecash crop system that is able to support more liveshystock near the village
Mulch Crop residue mulch can reduce rainfall runoff and increase water infiltration but sorghum amid millet stalks in raw or compost form mayadd little to soil fertility (Pieri 1985 p 91) As with manure the principal limiting factor of mulch is its finite supply--especially in the northern half of the WASAT The demand for its uses as animal feed fuel and construction materia] leaves most fields bare by planting time and even when it is not all used the prevalent custom is to burn it Moreover crop residues (3 to 5 Tha) are not sufficient by themselvEs to increase soil fertility and writer retention capacity appreciably In addition applications of mulch (10 Tha) can give rise to nitrogen deficiency which can only be overcome by composting or the addition of nitrogen (Pieri 1985)
Plowinggreen manuring Significant yield increases from on-station and n-farm research have been observed from deep ploughing and tillagepractices which change the structure of the soil allowing better root establishment and improved water infiltration and storage (Nicou and Charreau 1985 I)ugue 1985) Most tillage in the WASAT is done by shalshylow manual cultivation (85 of farmers) or by shallow animal traction cultivation Little pre-plant ploughing or tillage is done because of the need to plant soon after a rain (within 2 to 3 days) The soil is genershyally too hard and the animals too weak at this time of year for effective ploughing to take place before a major rain
Green manuring can also increase the fertility of the soil and add to its water retention capacity (Pieri 1985) However this practice also requires deep ploughing to incorporate the plants into the soil To be effective pre-plant and deep ploughing and green manure incorporation all require substantial draft power which can only be given by healthy well fed double ox teams This type of draft power will be available only in the long run when the farming systems can support high level-maintenance of the draft animals
2) Labor Saving Technologies
Animal Traction An estimated fifteen percent of farms in the WASAT use animal traction--mainly for transport shallow weeding or shallow land-preparation plowing (Matlon 1985) (see Photograph 2 page 40) Farmshyers in general use only one mechanized operation rather than using animal traction for all the agricultural activities of soil preparation plantingand weeding (Jaeger 1985) To date animal traction usage in the WASAT can be characterized as iand using (extensive) Some studies have reported
49
significant farm area expansion from animal traction usage Animal tracshytion can perform weeding 6 to 7 times faster than manual weeding (Jaeger and Sanders 1985) Increased yield effects have been reported in the literature (mainly from ploughing) but the yield effects are generally small (Binswanger 1978)
In spite of low animal traction adoption in the WASAT at present it is a technology that is feasible for use in the short run Animal traction can be made more economically attractive to farmers Present internal rates of return can be doubled and tripled by higher utilization rates (Jaeger 1985) Higher utilization rates can be achieved by increasing the number of mechanized operations In the past many animal traction proshygrams have failed in the WASAT because utilization rates were not suffishyciently high Returns to first time users of animal traction in the first years of operation are generally low because learning curves can be as long as five years and is a deterrent to first time users (Jaeger and Sanders 1985) First time users can obtain the full benefit of nechanizatior quicker through farmer and animal extension training and an improved market for trained draft animals
Mechanical Ridge Tier To respond to the labor constraint in conshystructing tied ridges the IITASAFGRAD Agronomy Program designed a protoshytype mechanical ridge tier (MRT) (Figure 6) for animal traction (Wright and Rodriguez 1985) (see Photographs 7 and 9 pages 41 42) With FSU and IITA SAFGRAD collaboration ihe MRT was field tested as part of Burkinas 1985 national farming systems program (Nagy et al 1986a) Yield levels compare favorably between ridges constructed with animal traction and tied manually and those ridges made with the MRT When the two pass method is used (first ridging and then using the MRT) the MRT substantially reduces the labor requirements from an average 75 man hoursha for the manual tyingof animal traction ridges to 20 man hoursha The MRT operation requires only 2 to 3 additional hours above ridging alone when ridging and tying with the MRT are done simultaneously (one pass) Donkeys must be strong and healthy for the one pass method Oxen which are mainly available on the frontier clearly have an advantage and can easily do both operations simultaneously
Linear programming representative farm models indicate that while available labor constrains the tying of ridges manually to 11 ha (Table 3 column 2) the MRT can tie 32 ha when using the one-pass method (Table 3 column 4) and is highly profitable The profitability is further increased with the addition of fertilizer (Table 4) although hectarage under tied ridges decreases to 09 for manual tying and to 30 with the MRT because labor is required for fertilizer application Budget analysis also indishycates the profitability of the MRT urder vaiious prices and goodbad year weather scenarios (Nagy et al 1986a)
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10
9
3 Latch lever 8 30 cm ridger that allows soil to flow over the top
4 Rubber band (inner tube strip) 9 Handles of houe Manga (FAQ donkey weecer) 5 Latch adjuster (for correct angle and to 10 Bicycle cable to brake lever
compensate for wear in bearings shovels and latch)
Figure 6 The ITASAFGRAD mechanical ridge tier (donkey version)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
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Table 4 Whole farm modeling analysis of a tied ridging-fertilization technology combination with donkey traction Central Plateau Burkina Faso
Tied-Ridging Technology Traditional Tied with Machine Management Tied by Two One
Variable (donkey) Hand Passes Pass ------------------- hectares---------------------
Total Area Cultivated 55 56 57 56 Maize
Traditional 20 With Tied Ridges 20 15 15
Red Sorghum Traditional 60 With Tied Ridges 60 68 60
White Sorghum Traditional 80 70 With Tied Ridges 10 80 95
Millet Traditional 318 315 318 188 With Tied Ridges 05 127
Peanuts 76 86 79 71
Total Cereals Production -------------------- kgs Per Househol 2103 2604 2970 3354 Per Resident 10 186 212 240
Net Farm Income3 000s FCFA-------------------Per Household 2153 2532 2732 2964 Per Worker 308 362 390 423
ource Nagy et al 1985 Based un application of 100 kgha 14-23-15 fertilizer at planting and 50 kgha urea four weeks after planting (20 man hoursha labor requirement for each application) Labor times of 75 man hoursha for tying of the ridges by hand 20 man hoursha to machine tie with two passes and 2 man hoursha to machine tie in one pass Yield estimates in kgsha for trashyditional practices and the technological interventions of fertilization and tied ridges in combination are as follows maize - not fertilized (1090 to 1730) red sorghum (672 to 1236) white sorghum (472 to 913) and millet (320 to 660) 1985 fertilizer and grain prices were used Based on 14 residentshousehold
4 Annualized cost of 4400 FCFA for machine subtracted in columns 3 and 4 Based on 7 active workershousehold
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Information from farmer questionnaires and field staff indicates that the major problem with the MRT is its awkwardness However most farmers were able to operate the MRT fairly efficiently after 15 to 30 minute- in the field Several engineering features require redesigning but the overshyall consensus of the field trials is that the MRT or a machine similar to the MRT can be used at present not only as a labor-saving device but also as a yield-increasing technology
Herbicides Herbicides could be used to decrease the labor constraint in the peak-labor-demand plantingweeding period (Spencer 1985) At present acquiring herbicides in the WASAT is difficult and little research has been done to tailor herbicides to WASAT conditions Both broad leaf and slender leaf plants as well as various trees are grown in association in the same field and these are sensitive to different herbicides
Economic analysis in northern Nigeria (Ogungbile 1980) suggests that weeding either by animal traction or manually is more profitable than herbicides at present Herbicides will find an increasing role in the WASAT only when cropping intensities are increased to the point where they require more intensive weeding (Norman 1982) and when the opportunity cost of labor substantially increases (Ruthenberg 1980)
3) Improved Varietal Pesearch
Few improved varieties of food crops are used by farmers in the WASAT Significant yield increases for varietal improvement from on-station reshysearch have been observed but a large yield gap between on-station and onshyfarm yields exists especially for the staple crops of sorghum and millet Experimental results suggest that the cereal y6 eld gap is less for local than for improved cultivars (Matlon 1985) Yields from FSU on-farm trials in Burkina for improved maize red and white sorghum and cowpeas rarely exceeded the yields of local varieties of the traditional management treatments (FSU Annual Reports)
Analysis by ICRISAT of sorghum and millet cultivars indicate that the on-station selection procedures under a high management environment (high fertility tillage and water management) have resulted in elite cultivars being more management responsive than local varieties but at the same time inferior at lower management levels (Matlon 1985) This suggests that breeding objectives should include screening and selection procedures that can provide cultivars which also exploit moderate management levels and that there is a need to hasten the process of variety evaluation onto onshyfarm trials (Matlon 1985) With the current selection procedures the full impact from varietal development will only be felt in the WASAT when farmers utilize a higher degree of improved management practices--practices such as an MRT-fertilizer combination--which would not take place until the intermediate run Also even if change ocur in the present breeding objectives leading to the development of new varieties able to exploit moderate management levels these vayleties will only be available in the intermediate run (five to ten years)
4) Crop Associations
Experiment station studies of different crop associations have received increased attention in the WASAT over the past 15 years (Fussell
53
and Serafini 1985) Significant aggregate biological yields from intensishyfying cereal-cowpea associations have been obtained in research station trials (Fussell and Serafini 1985 Muleba1985) Increased legume densishyties however are normally accompanied by serious insect infestation probshylems requiring pesticide spraying The role that biological nitrogen fixashytion has played in obtaining the increased aggregate yields in cerealshylegume associations in the WASAT is yet to be determined (Fussell and Serifini 1985) Studies have shown however that under WASAT water stress and mineral deficiency conditions some legumes may contribute to nitrogen losses (Pieri 1985)
On-farm researcher-iianaged trials indicate that the most limiting facshytors in the performance of cereal-cowpea association intensification are soil moisture and fertility (Ohm et al 1985a) Under favorable condishytions of moisture and fertility it is profitable to increase cowpeadensity but under less favorable conditions the present practice of the farmers seems to be more dependable and profitable (Ohm et al 1985a)Under improved management (tied ridges fertilizer and pesticides) cowpeadensities somewhat higher than those currently used by farmers appear to be economically viable (Ohm et al 1985a) There are however instances where increased cowpea density has decreased sorghum yields (Matlon 1983)
Socio-economic studies indicate that farmers are primarily concerned with maintaining cereal yields and that modifications in cowpea densities and cultural practices that decrease cereal yield will not be adopted bythe farmer (Sawadogo et al 1985 Diehl and Sipkens 1985 Matlon 1983)Labor data analysis indicates that intensified cereal-cowpea associations substantially increase planting and weeding requirements (Matlon 1983)Depending on the planting date intensification can change the distribution of labor demand and reduce the amount of labor required for final weedingbecause of the cowpeas competition with the weeds Although returns to labor can be greater under intensification farmers do cite lower cereal yields and increased labor demands as the prime reasons for not intensifyshying (Matlon 1983)
Limited research has been carried out on cropping associations involvshying trees in the WASAT Alley cropping--food crops grown in the alleyformed by rows of leguminous shrubs or trees--could form one basis for changing traditional shifting cultivation practices (Kang et al 1984)Alley cropping does possess many potential advantages such as providingmulch firewood biologically fixed nitrogen animal feed and erosion conshytrol However it is very management-intensive and has not been thoroughly researched in the WASAT
Some intensification of cereal and legume crops can take place in the intermediate run once the physical environment is improved but significant crop intensification alley cropping and biological nitrogen fixation would contribute their greatest potential in the long run after farmers first increase their cereal production
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Sequencing of Technologies and Farm Management Practices in the WASAT
With falling cereal yields and the decline of the bush-fallow system in high density population areas the first necessity is to develop new technology systems to increase cereal yields Based upon the information of the proposed technologies as to their present agronomic technical and economic feasibility (Table 1) the overall sequential pattern of technoshylogical adoption would be to use the technologies available in the short run to alleviate the soil fertilitvwater retention constraints ie fertilizer tied ridges diguettes and dikes This would require alleviatshying the labor constraint in the peak-labor-demand period of plantingweedshying through available labor-saving technologies ie animal traction and the MRT
Once the agronomic environment has been improved new variety developshyment will be facilitated The development of these varieties will take time and be available in the intermediate run as compared with the more immediate availability of the tied ridgingfertilization technology combishynation Crop association intensification and diversification and other long run technologies and farm management techniques would then be incorshyporated as they become technically feasible Thus the overall sequential pattern of technology adoption can be dichotomized into a) technologies for the present cereal based farming systems and b) technologies and farm manshyagement practices for the Euture (intensified) farming systems
Technologies for the Present Farming Systems
Production constraints household endowments and household decision making characteristics are heterogeneous in the WASAT leiding to differshyences in the technology requirements and adoption patterns of various households Thus the delineation of recommendation domains can aid the targeting of research extension and government policy and programs This section of the chapter first delineates a set of recommendation domains based on production constraints household characteristics and resource endowments The technologies available in the short run (Table 1) are then sequenced as to the probable adoption pattern within each recommendation domain
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Recommendation Domains Based on Production Constraints
The labor endowment shortage is homogeneous throughout the WASAT but access to land is not Old settlement high-population-density areas exhibit limited to zero fallow rotation due to the limited access to land In general land quality and yield in the older settlement areas is lower than on the frontier which has access to land ind utilizes the traditional bush-fallow system Both intensification and extensification options are available on the frontier whereas only the intensification options are available in the old settlement areas due to the limited access to land Thus technology adoption choices are different in the two areas and a delineation can be made on a population density basis as follows
A Old settlementhigh-population-density areas (ie Central Plateau Burkina Faso)
B Frontierlow-population-density areas
Recommendation domains can also be made on an agroclimatic basis Higher rainfall and relatively higher soil fertility in a general north to south direction within the WASAT vary technology requirements and expected adoption patterns
Recommendation Domains Based on Household Characteristics and Endowments
Farmers have been found to be mainly risk averse (Binswanger 1980 Dillon and Scandizzo 1978) However the risk aversion of farmers within a group may range between high risk aversion and low risk avoidance depending on their initial endowments ie wealth Theoretically the risk that a household will assume is positively correlated with household wealth-shywealth being largely embodied in livestock holdings (mainly cattle) Wealth can also be considered positively correlated with the ability of a household to invest in purchased inputs or absorb larger losses in a poor rainfall season Household characteristics are further delineated into the type cf traction (manual or animal) presently being used This leads to the following recommendation domains Ysed on the household characteristics of risk wealth and type of traction
I A high risk aver3e low wealth manual tillage household--may only adopt low riT technologies and has limited ability to buy purshychased inputs
II A low risk averse high wealth animal traction household--chance of technology adoption higher due to the greater ability to buy purchased inputs
III A low risk averse high wealth manual traction household--chance of technology adoption higher due to greater ability to buy purshychased inputs but has not yet made the transition to animal traction
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Six recommendation domains are presented in Table 5 based upon the household characteristics and population density (access to land) typoloshygies described earlier The recommendation domains are for the 500 to 900 mm annual rainfall regions The potential sequential adoption patterns of the available technologies in the short run for the present cereal based farming systems--complex fertilizers tied ridging animal traction and the MRT--are presented in Table 5 for each recommendation domain The sequencing patterns of the technologies for each recommendation domain are based on the previous discussion of farmers adoption strategies where technologies are adopted singly or in clusters in a logical agronomic and economR sequence This is discussed for each recommendation domain below
IA High Risk Averse Central Plateau Manual Households
With limited access to land limited ability to buy purchased inputs and high risk aversion the opportunities for the household in the first stage of technology adoption are to manually construct tied ridges and use other water retention techniques such as diguettes which use available famshyily labor Linear programming (LP) results indicate that up to 1 hectare could be put in tied ridges manually by the average household which would increase production and income (Table 3 column 1) Also survey results indicated that households used tied ridging at FSU village sites and did tied ridging between 13 and 1 hectare per household (Ohm et al 1985a) Tied ridging is agronomically feasible and economically profitable For this highly risk averse group tied ridging is especially attractive beshycause there is no ris 5of losing a cash outlay with only family labor being utilized for ridging
The next step in the sequence of technology adoption would involve a cash outlay Fertilizer is an option on the land in tied ridges espeshycially in the more southern regions of the WASAT where rainfall is higher Fertilizer use although profitable (Table 2 column 4 Nedogo) would be limited by the small hectarage under tied ridges and the tendency of this group of farmers to avoid risks
Animal traction in combination with the MRT would seem to be the next step in the sequence This combination is not only labor saving but yield increasing as well The addition of the MRT to the machinery complement increases the internal rate of return from 10 for animal traction fWeedshying) alone (Jaeger 1984) to between 30-40 on the Central Plateau LP analysis (Table 3 column 4) indicates that the combination of animal tracshytion and the MRT enables the construction of tied ridges on up to 65 of available cereal land on the average or representative farm and increases total cereals production and income above that of traditional practices and
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Table 5 Recommendation domains and likely sequential adoption patterns of technologies in the WASAT
1 2Household Central Plateau Frontier Characteristics A B
I High risk aversion 1 Manual tied ridges-diguettes 1 Animal traction 3
Low wealth endowment 2 Animal traction-MRT 2 MRT Manual traction 3 Fertilizer 3 Fertilizer
4 Improved varieties 4 Improved varieties
II Low risk aversion 1 Fertilizer 1 MRT High wealth endowment 2 MRT 2 Fertilizer Animal traction 3 Improved varieties 3 Improved varieties
III Low risk aversion 1 Fertilizer 1 Animal traction High wealth endowmont 2 Animal traction 2 MRT Manual traction 3 MRT 3 Fertilizer
4 Improved varieties 4 Improved varieties
1 High density population limited access to land and in general lower quality land than the Frontier
2 Low population density access to land and in generel higher quality land than the Central Plateau
T MRT - the mechanical ridge tier
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17
manual tied ridging With the increase in income households would then be in a better position to purchase fertilizers Internal rates of return for an animal traction-MRT-fertilizer combination range from 25-30 and increase production and income over the animal traction-MRT combination (contrast Table 3 column 4 with Table 4 column 4)
IB High Risk Averse Frontier Manual Households
Households included in this category could follow the manual tied ridgingdiguette regime of Type IA households on maize compound land but may find it as profitable and less labor constraining to maintain the bushshyfallow system for sorghum and millet and use animal traction The present internal rate of return using donkey and ox traction has been estimated to be 31 and 21 respcCtively for a frontier area but the rates of return can be doubled with increased utilization thus making the technology very profshyitable (Jaeger 1984) Next in the sequential adoption pattern would be the use of the MRT The use of the MRT by households may not be used conshycurrently with the introduction of animal traction but the incentive for its utilization would increase as population pressure increased and land became more scarce With internal rates of return of 35-40 for donkey traction and 25-30ior ox traction mechanical ridge tying at the frontier could be expected The third step in the sequence would be the addition of fertilizer
IlA Low Risk Averse Central Plateau Animal Traction Households
Animal traction households exhibiting a lower risk aversion and a greater ability to buy purchased inputs will likely find fertilizer as the best option particularly in the more southern areas of the WASAT with higher rainfall The option of using animal traction to extensify is not available because of the limited access to land and thus the next technolshyogy in the sequential adoption pattern would be to use animal traction to intensify using the MRT
IIB Low Risk Averse Frontier Manual Households
As in IB the extensification option of using animal traction will continue to dominate until increased population pressure limits access to land thus making the intensification option of using the MRT more attracshytive--especially in the northern areas of the WASAT where the rainfall is more limited and Aserratic soil fertility declines fertilizer will become more profitable
IIIA Low Risk Averse Central Plateau Manual Households
Households in this category are expected to choose fertilizer over manual tying of ridges because they have the ability to purchase it and are less averse to taking risk Manual tied ridging could also be an option at first but presented with the opportunity of using an animal traction-MRT combination households would probably choose the latter
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IIIB Low Risk Averse Frontier Manual Tillage Households
Although these households would not be averse to using the land-subshystituting inputs a higher payoff is likely to come from extensification using animal traction in the initial stages of technology introduction As population pressure on the higher quality land increases increased utilshyization of the MRT and fertilizer would be expected
In summary different sequential adoption patterns exist for the difshyferent recommendation domains Adoption is expected to be more rapid by those in the low risk aversehigh wealth categories Given the present levels of research exteksion and government program support some groups such as the high risk averselow wealth old settlement farmers may never adopt any of the technologies
Tied ridging chemical fertilizer and animal traction have all been potentially available to farmers in the WASAT over the last two decades Yet little adoption of these technologies for cereal production has taken place Our hypothesis for this lack of adoption is that while the indivishydual technologiuts may be technically and economically feasible the ecoshynomic impact of individual technologies for the level of risk involved has not been sufficiently high Both farm trials and whole-farm modeling indishycate a substantially higher impact from the simultaneous introduction of all three technologies including the MRT The combined introduction of these technologies alleviates the soil fertility soil water and labor constraints and provides tilarge economic incentive at low levels of risk
The requirement th t the available technologies be introduced simulshytaneously to satisfy farmers risk and profit levels before they will be adopted is in conflict with the empirical finding that farmers adopt innoshyvations sequentially An alternative is to wait until new technologies are developed that satisfy the high profit-low risk criteria so that they will be adopted individually in a sequential manner Another alternative is to use support programs in view of the pressing nature of the problems in the WASAT Support trograms would have to take into consideration the sequenshytial nature of adoption while trying to achieve total package adoption as quickly as possible Animal traction farmers may adopt an MRTfertilizer package simultaneously given high economic incentives and support programs but clearly for manual farmers (the majority) the combined introduction of animal traction the MRT and a fertilizer package all at once in one year is too great
The main thrust of the support program should be to select the first technology within each recommendation donain (Table 5) and provide economic incentives that make the level of risk of the technology acceptable to farmers For example the first technology in the sequence of recommendashytion domains IB and IIB (Table 5) is animal traction Support programs
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would be required to deal with the pre-conditions for animal traction adopshytion (as discussed in Chapters IV and V) and provide adequate economic incentives At a later period when farmers are acquainted with animal traction support programs would deal with the next technology in the sequence for each recommendation domain Following this procedure will reduce the adoption time between technologies within the package The supshyport programs should lead to the adoption of a soil fertility-water retention-labor saving technology package within each recommendation domain Without support programs technology adoption of the present techshynologies available to the WASAT will be very slow with some farmers--in particular the high risk averselow wealth farmers--not adopting any of the technologies
Technologies for Future Farming Systems
The long-run goal of technology introduction for future farming sysshytems is to change the upgraded dominant cereal-based farming system into a more intensified cereal-foragelivestock-cash crop farming systemInformation on the agronomic and economic feasibility of the technologies that may come into play in future farming systems is incomplete making it impossible to sequence the individual technologies as was done for technolshyogies available for present farming systems
Improvements in the present cereal-based farming systems will set the stage for a more intensive crop association and rotation regime Given the yield increase from the fertilizertied ridgesimproved variety combinashytion an estimation has been made that moderate cereal surpluses could be expected in the WASAT in the future with the adoption of these technologies (Savadogo 1986) This would make it possible to shift some production out of cereals and utilize available land labor and capital on more intensive cerealforagecash crop rotations--especially cereallegume rotations that could provide biological nitrogen fixation and reduce the costs of and dependency upon outside sources of nitrogen
Feed availability would increase livestock numbers and improve animal traction not only by better nutrition but also by shifting to more oxen power and away from the lower draft donkey power that dominates low qualityforage farming systems This would mean better crop residue incorporation and green manuring opportunities With increased livestock numbers in proximity to the household more manure would be available Although farmshyers would initially adopt these technologies sequentially the process of adoption would be an iterative one as the more intensive use of one techshynology allows a more intensive use of another ie increased forageallows more cattle to be kept near the compound resulting in more manure which in turn may allow more forage hectarage
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Footnotes
It would be more appropriate to measure risk in terms of a time series
variance (ie over many years) as opposed to a cross sectional varishyance method (ie over many farmers in one year) as used here Three years of data make it difficult to undertake a time series risk analyshysis For a textbook treatment of risk analysis see Anderson et al 1977
2 Tied ridges (TR) are small depressions made between crop rows either by
hand tillage or by a combination of animal traction and hand tillage When constructed by hand depressions 32 cm long x 24 cm wide x 16 cm deep spaced 1-12 meters apart are made between the rows When conshystructed with animal traction the fields are first ridged with a cultishyvator (houe manga) which is equipped with a middle sweep to create a furrow This is then followed by hand tillage to make a 16 cm high ridge perpendicular to the furrow every one to two meters The depresshysions catch and hold water after a rain and increase water infiltration and retention Due to the larger water holding capacity of animal tracshytion tied ridges water retention ability is greater than that of manually tied ridges
One exception should be noted Traditionally maize is grown on the relshyatively higher fertility compound land Three years of on-farm researcher-manageu trials experimenting with maize on non-compound land with TR in general did not show significant yield increases (FSU Annual Report 1983 Lang et al 1984 and Ohm et al 1985a) These expershyiments appear to indicate the need to first utilize organic material or fertilizer to convert the less fertile land into the equivalent of comshypound land before putting the tied ridges on it if maize is to be grown there
4 All the FSU economic analyses have been carried out using subsidized fertilizer prices (40 to 50) Clearly the economic profitability would be lower and the incidence of fertilizer cash outlay loss greater utilizing unsubsidized prices
Trials examining the possibility of growing maize on good sorghum land and sorghum on good millet land by upgrading the soil through a fertilshyizertied ridge combination were also conducted Three years of onshyfarm researcher-managed maize on sorghum land trials proved inconclushysive (FSU Annual Reports) and although a sorghum on millet land experishyment showed promise sorghum plant establishment was a problem (Ohm et al ]985a)
6 The observed farmer adoption rates in different regions correlate well
with experimental evidence which sugests that yields are less variable and more responsive to fertilizer and that there is less risk of losing fertilizer cash outlay as rainfall levels and land quality improves
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When questioned farmers said that they saw the value of fertilizer but that credit and availability were obstacles to greater use All complex fertilizers are imported from outside the WASAT and usually distribution within each country is handled by a para-statal organization
8 An FSU on-farm farmer-managed experiment involving tied ridges and
mulch (5 Tha) on maize was conducted in two village sites in Burkina in 1984 (Ohm et al 1985a p 17) The mulch part of the experiment was abandoned since only 6 of the 50 farmers had access to sufficient mulch
The MRT is attached to an animal drawn cultivator with one large middle sweep The MRT is essentially a paddle wheel (45 cm in diameter) with four paddles one scraping the ground building up earth until it is tripped by the operator every 1-12 to 2 meters to create the tie in the furrow between the two ridges
10 Analysis of five management factors--plowing tied ridges fertilization
timing planting arrangement and weeding timing--indicated that the major determinants of the yield gap between the experiment station and farmers fields were plowing and tied ridges (Matlon 1985) Also the major problems observed in the on-farm trials with the elite cultivars are drought and heat stress related leading to poor seedling establishshyment and poor flowering and grain filling ability Spittlebug problems have occurred on the new sorghum variety of Framida (Ohm et al 1985b) and striga continues to be a problem with most new sorghum varieties
11 The development of hybrid varieties such as the hybrid sorghums bred for
the Sudan (Gebisa 1986) may play a role in obtaining moderate level management response The poor marketing infrastructures of the WASAT however vould prevent hybrids from being a technology that could be used in the short run Present breeding for disease and pest resistance in sorghim and millet is encouraging (Andrews 1986 Andrews et al 1985) and is expected to play an important role in increasing cereal yields in the intermediate run
12 Empirical evidence linking reduced risk aversion with higher levels of
wealth is not available in the WASAT It has been a standard part of decision theory that at higher levels of wealth risk aversion would decrease (Anderson et al 1977) This proposition seems to be consisshytent with field interviews with farmers about their objectives (see Chapter IV page of this report)
13 Not included among the categories is a high risk averse low wealth
animal traction household While this category undoubtedly exists in the WASAT the number of households in this category would alot be large
14 The recommendation domains presented in Table 5 are discussed at the
inter-household level which considers resource endowments and decisionshymaking in the context of a family unit vis-a-vis another family unit
63
The recommendation domains could also be discussed at the intrashyhousehold level which considers differences--in gender age and access to and control of resources within the household--which may lead to difshyferences in the sequencing and types of technologies adopted by the various sub-groups (see McKee 1983 Nagy et al 1985)
15 The opportunity cost of labor (wage rate from outside employment) ranges
from 30 to 50 FCFAhr (FSU unpublished survey data) At an opportunity cost of 35 FCFAhr farmers would not have lost money by undertaking the construction of tied ridges (Table 2)
16 Calculations made using the procedure by Jaeger (1984) and adding apshy
propriate costs and revenues based on FSU on-farm farmer-managed trials to estimate the yield increases from the use of the MRT (Ohm et al 1985b Nagy et al 1986)
17 The weekly available labor hour figures used in the model are based on
conservative estimates Increasing the labor availabilities by 10 to 20 for the tied ridging period andor allowing tied ridging to also take place in the following period results in tied ridges being conshystructed on all the cereal land
CHAPTER VI
POLICY IMPLICATIONS AND FUTURE AVENUES FOR RESEARCH AND EXTENSION
This report has proposed that the overall sequence of technology intervention for the WASAT is 1) technologies that improve the agronomicenvironment ie water retention and soil fertility improvement With appropriate policy and institutional support this technology combination can be immediately implemented 2) the use when they become available of improved varieties that can exploit moderate input levels If varieties are developed for the moderate input levels recommended in 1) above this techshynology is expected to be available for farmer adoption in the next five to ten years and 3) more intensive livestockcereal systems in the better agricultural areas and a shift back to extensive grazing and forestry in the more marginal agricultural regions There are many types of technolshyogies for those intensive livestockcerealcash crop systems that can now be productively studied on the experiment station and in on-farm trials so that these systems can be available to farmers after the next decade
The first priority of the agricultural policy research and extension community in the WASAT is to develop technologies to increase the yields of the cereal-based systems dominate the The presentfarming which area focus should be on alleviating the low soil fertilitylow soil water retenshytion constraints Complex fertilizers the water retention methods of tied ridges diguettes and dikes and the labor-saving technologies of animal traction and the mechanical ridge tier are a]rady available for extension in much of the region
Tied ridging chemical fertilizer and animal traction however have all been potentially available to farmers in the WASAT for more than two decades Yet there has been little adoption by WASAT food crop producers of any of these three innovations This is because there was little ecoshynomic incentive to adopt these technologies prior to the 1960s because food consumption needs were being met Moreover there was little export demand for sorghum and millct Hence there was little demand for new cereal technologies However with increased population recent droughtsand the deterioration of the soil quality in the higher population regions during the intervening years the demand for new cereal technology has subshystantially increased
Credit fertilizer and animal traction non-availability and lack of information have all been cited as reasons for the low level of farmer adoption of the above technologies in the WASAT From our perspective the principal reason for the failure to adopt these individual components is that the economic impact of each of the three components has not been sufshyficiently high by itself Fertilizer utilization is too risky in poorrainfall years without some simultaneous method to increase the availabilshy
water the critical times of plant development themselves do not resolve the low soil fertility problem Family labor
ity of at Tied ridges by
65
availability constrains the amount of tied ridging construction It apshypears from the on-farm trials and the whole-farm modeling results that all three technologies (including the MRT) would need to be introduced togetherbefore economic incentive and risk levels are adequate for technology adoption Introducing the technologies together would alleviate the soil fertiltty soil water and labor constraints and provide high economic incentives at levels of risk that would be attractive to farmers However as previously discussed farmers adopt technologies sequentially and not as a package
An option is to wait for the research community to develop new techshynologies that will individually provide a sufficient economic incentive at a level of risk that is attractive to farmers Another option is to develop support programs that will enable farmers to sequentially adopt the available technologies en route to total package adoption The review of the constraints to cereal production and the review of the available and future technologies for the WASAT (Chapters IV and V) point out that such individual technologies will not be available in the short run and will probably not be available in the intermediate run (10-15 years) The pressing problems of the WASAT require more immediate solutions which can only be brought about by support programs to facilitate the adoption of the available technologies If the package of available technologies is introshyduced without special government programs farmers are expected to adoptthe technologies in the sequence given for each recommendation domain as outlined in Chapter V (Table 5) Adoption by recommendation domain would vary with those in the low risk aversehigh wealth categories adopting the technologies first groups such asSome the high risk averselow wealth old settlement farmers may never adopt any of the technologies
Implementation of a support program to increase the present cereal production in the WASAT would include
a) credit programs for the cash outlays required by farmers for fershytilizer and animal traction
b) farm mnagement information especially on efficient utilization of animal traction and fertilizer from the extension service
c) development of the input and product markets
thrustA main of the support program would be to select the technologieswithin each recommendation dolvin that farmers would most likely adopt
described Ta|IlAfirst (as in 5) and provide the economic incentives and pre-conditions for farmers to adopt the technology Once farmers become acquainted with the technology the next technology would be supported in a similar manner and so on until the total technology package was adoptedAppropriate economic incentives and pre-conditions would ensure that techshynology adoption proceeded as quickly as possible so that all the farmers could adopt the total package in the shortest possible time
66
To facilitate new-technology introduction some of the potential typesof research and extension institutional support programs are mentioned below
Priorities for Extension and Local Governments
The highest priorities for extension and local government agencies involve focusing on the soil fertilitywater retention technologies of manshyual tied ridging diguettes and dikes complex fertilizers animal traction and the mechanical ridge tier These technologies should be put forward on demonstration fields (using local farmer participation where appropriate) individually and as packages for each of the recommendation domains
There is a role for local government agencies in the construction and maintenance of large dikes and barriers to regulate the speed of rainfall runoff at the village level Within each region individual households would either construct tied ridges andor diguettes--whichever is the most appropriate for the area Where diguettes are used assistance from local government agencies may be required for correct contour placement
A critical role will have to be undertaken by extension agencies to ensure that the appropriate preconditions exist for animal traction adopshytion The preconditions of shorter learning curves for both the farmer and draft animals and higher utilization rates can be facilitated by animal traction programs Extension agencies could be involved in training farmshyers (technical operation and animal maintenance) and in the training of draft animals until a draft animal market develops Shortening the learnshying curve will itseli increase utilization rates which can be further increased by an appropriate complement of implements including the mechanshyical ridge tier
Priorities for On-Farm Testing
The prototype IITA mechanical ridge tier requires further modificashytions at the engineering level to reduce its weight and awkwardness and increase its adaptability for hook-up with a wide range of cultivatorplow equipment (Nagy et al 1986a) Other possibilities include an automatic tripping device and even new design concepts which need to be rigorously field tested with farmer participation As modifications and new design concepts are developed they must be made available to the extension system and local manufacturers and provisions made for information feedback to the on-farm testing agencies The mechanical ridge tier is an implement that can be made locally and every attempt by the local extension agencies to provide prototype copies to local manufacturers should be undertaken Locally-made mechanical ridge tiers enable location-specific adaptations arising from a local manufacturerfarmer interchange
Priorities also include further on-farm testing of diguettes and of modifications of diguettes and barriers Further on-farm testing across the WASAT of raw and acidulated rock phosphate from all the major rock
67
phosphate deposits in the WASAT is required to evaluate the agronomic and economic feasibility of this technology
Priorities for Experimental Research Stations
On-station crop improvement programs require a change in the presentemphasis on screening and selection under high management conditions--manshyagement conditions much higher than can be provided by WASAT farmers in the intermediate run Thus crop improvement programs in the WASAT should conshycentrate on developing varieties that show stability over time and exhibit a response curve that exploits moderate management levels Selection must be focused on resistance to important pests and diseases as well as producshytion superiority under varying levels of soil productivity and available soil moisture--all of which contribute to production stability This change in crop development goals requires new screening and selection proshycedures and an increased interdisciplinary effort between on-station and on-farm research
The designing of labor-saving devices for fertilizer applicationplanting and other field operations should be further studied for both manual and animal traction farmers where applicable Research on water retention methods other than tied ridges or diguettes is required for those areas where these two technologies are not effective especially on the sandier soils characterizing much of the Sahelo-Sudanian zone
CHAPTER VII
SUMMARY
Whole-farm modeling was critical in identifying the potential effect of new technologies and in evaluating the seasonal labor bottleneck As onshyfarm trials produce more technologies that pass the yield and profit criteria whole farm modeling analysis will become increasingly important to identify the interactions of technology components and estimate their potenshytial impact at the farm level
A major contribution of the Purdue farming systems research project was not the identification of the individual constraints but rather a study of their interconnected nature It is necessary for farming systems research projects to concentrate on the well-known synergistic nature of agricultural inputs and not be satisfied with minimum cost input changes which also have minimal effects on yields or profits
The seasonal labor constraint has been stressed as the principal barshyrier to agricultural development in the WASAT and in other semi-arid areas in Africa However a more agronomic orientation to the analysis of the water requirement and 1oil fertility problems was necessary The combined effect of improved water retention increases in soil fertility and overshycoming the seasonal labor bottleneck with the mechanical tied ridger had a substantial impact on farm income Since the combined effects are much larger than the individual effects it is unfortuuiLte that farmers tend to adopt one input at a ime Governmental support of the combined practices appears to be necessary to facilitate their combined introduction
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Eicher Carl K 1983 West Africas agrarian crisis Paper prepared for the fifth bi-annual conference of the West African Association of Agricultural Economists Abidjan Ivory Coast
FSUSAFGRAD 1983 FSUSAFCRAD 1982 Annual Report International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Fussell L K and P G Serafini 1985 Crop associations in the semishyarid tropics of West Africa In Appropriate technologies for farmers in semi-arid West Africa H W Ohm and J G Nagy (eds) Internashytional Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Gebisa Ejeta 1986 Breeding sorghum hybrids for irrigated and rainfed conditions in the Sudan Proceedings International drought symposium on food grain production in the semi-arid regions of Sub-Saharan Africa Nairobi Kenya
Ghodake R D and J B Hardaker 1981 Whole-farm modeling for assessshyment of dryland technology International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRlSAT) Patancheru Andhra Pradesh India
Hardaker J Brian Jock R Anderson and John L Dillon 1984 Perspecshytives on assessing the impacts of improved agricultural technologies in developing countries Australian Journal of Agricultural Economics 2887-108
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Jaeger W K 1983 Animal traction and resource productivity Evidence from Upper Volta Paper presented at the third annual farming systems research symposium Kansas State University Manhattan Kansas
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Kang B T C F Wilson and T L Lawson 1984 Alley cropping A stable alternative to shifting cultivation International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) Ibadan Nigeria
Kowal J M and A H Kassam 1978 Agricultural Ecology of Savanna A Study of West Africa Oxford University Press Oxford England
Lang M G R P Cantrell H W Ohm and S Sawadogo 1984 FSUSAFGRAD 1983 Annual Report International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Lang Mahlon C Ronald P Cantrell and John H Sanders 1983 Identifyshying farm level constraints and evaluating new technology in UpperVolta Staff Paper Department of Agricultural Economics Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Lang Mahlon G Ronald P Cantrell Herbert W Ohm and Sibiri Sawadogo 1984 FSUSAFGRAD 1983 Annual Report International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
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Martinez Juan Carlos and Jose Roman Arauz 1984 Developing appropriate technologies through on-farm research The lessons from Caisan Panama Agricultural Administration 1797-114
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Matlon Peter J 1983 The potential for increased food production in semi-arid West Africa Paper presented at the IFPRI-University of Zimbabwe Conference on Accelerating Agricultural Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa Victoria Falls Zimbabwe 29 August - 1 September
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Matlon Peter J 1983 Technology evaluation Five case studies from West Africa In Coming full circle Farmers participation in the development of technology International Development Research Council (IDRC) Ottawa Ontario Canada
Matlon P J and D Spencer 1984 Increasing food production in Sub-Saharan Africa Environmental problems and inadequate technologicalsolutions American Journal of Agricultural Economics 56671-76
McCarl B A 1982 REPFARM Design calculation and interpretation ofthe linear programming model Station Bulletin No 385 AgriculturalExperiment Station Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
McKee Catherine 1984 Methodological challenges in analyzing the houseshyhold in farming systems research Intra-household resource allocation In proceedings of the Kansas State Universitys 1983 Farming SystemsSymposium C (ed)Flora Kansas State University Manhattan Kansas
McMillan Della 1979 Agricultural development and migration in three villages outside Kaya Upper Volta Department of AgriculturalEconomics Purdue University W Lafayette MimeoIN USAID Contracts AFR-C-1257 amp 1258
McNamara R S 1985 The challenges for sub-Saharan Africa Sir John Crawford Memorial Lecture November 1 Consultative Group on Internashytional Agricultural Research Washington DC
Muleba N F Brockman and 1985D Kagne Variety development for associated cropping In Appropriate technologies for farmers in semi-arid West Africa H W Ohm and JG Nagy (eds) International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Nagy J G and HW Ohm 1986 FSUSAFGRAD 1985 Annual Report Internashytional Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Nagy J G L L Ames and H W Ohm 1985 Technology evaluation polshyicy change and farmer adoption in Burkina Faso International Programsin Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Nagy J G H W Ohm L L Ames and L D Schaber 1986a Analysis ofthe IITASAFGRAD mechanical ridge tier International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Nagy J G H W Ohm and Sibiri Sawadogo 1986b Burkina Faso A case study of the Purdue UniversitySAFGRAD farming systems project Intershynational Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiaila
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Nicholson SE 1982 The Sahel A climatic perspective Club du S-Ihel Joint CILSS and OECD publication
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77
APPENDIX 1
Administrative Report
In December 1978 Purdu University was awarded a two year contract with the US Agency for International Development to establish and operate a farming systems research unit in Burkina Faso as one of the components of the Semi-Arid Food Grain Research and Development Program (SAFGRAD)
This contract AFR-C-1472 had several mandates
1 Analyze small farm conditions and application of new technologies to those conditions
2 Formulate strategies regarding development and application of small farm relevant technology
3 Develop recommendations regarding physical research priorities and
4 Design help organize and analyze farmer field trials and studies as a means of performing the above
After several extensions the contract was amended in 1985 to reflect an additional set of objectives
1 Complete the transfer of the farming systems research methodology and techniques gained under this contract to national research organizashytions in the SAFGRAD countries
2 Finalize analysis of empirical research results
3 Finalize and publish guidelines for the methodological analytical or organizational and operational conduct of FSR in the SAFGRAD region
4 In conjunction with the SAFGRAD coordination office complete the groundwork for a West African regional FSR network
The termination of the project occurred on June 30 1986 Field activities in Burkina Faso were maintained through March 31 1986
The body of this report provides a description of the achievements of the project in terms of its mandate This section is the administrative report covering the implementation of this contrast
Contractor staff were provided logistic support by USAID in accordance with local AID procedures this included housing and utilities furniture household equipment and medical facilities to our long term staff In addition two vehicles were provided to our team for the duration of the project These vehicles were financed outside our contract but from SAFGRAD project funds
Initially the Purdue University team comprising an agricultural economist agronomist and rural sociologist were to be provided office
78
space at the Kamboinse Research station outside the city limits of Ouagadougou At the onset the FSU office was established in Ouagadougou then moved to Kamboinse however because the vehicles provided were not very reliable and transportation problems for local hire staff created major problems the office was relocated in Ouagadougou in agreement with SAFGRAD and USAID The FSU team continued to closely work with the ICRISAT and IITA teams who had responsibility for other resetrch components of the SAFGRAD program
At Purdue University a steering committee composed of the departments heads of Agronomy Agricultural Economics and SociologyAnthropology was established to guide activities of the FSU It frequently met to evaluate progress discuss issues relevant to the project and to formulate overall strategy for achieving project objectives
Technical coordination and backstopping for the project was maintained on the Purdue campus during the entire project period Dr Wilford H Morris provided this service from 1978 to June 1983 and Dr John H Sanders from July 1983 to termination On-campus administrative and logistic support was provided by the Office of International Programs in Agriculture under the directorship of T Kelley White and D Woods Thomas Other administrative staff responsible for project activities were Dr James L Collom associate director IPIA and Mrs Katy Ibrahim administrative assistant for the FSU project
In addition Dr Thomas was a participant of the SAFGRAD Technical Advisory Committee (TAG) and Consultative Committee (CC) of the SAFGRAD which met yearly in Burkina Faso These committees were a channel for review of all SAFGRAD activities in WestCentral Africa
During the seven and a half years the FSU project existed a total of nine long-term staff were on site in Burkina Faso for a total of 225 person months (PM)
Paul Christensen agronomist acting chief-of-party February 1979 to December 1981 - 33 PM
Richard Swanson rural sociologist October 1979 to July 1983 - 46 PM
Ram Singh economist and chief of party April 1979 to Macch 1981 - 24 PM
William Jaeger economistcomputer analyst December 1981 to June 1983 - 19 PM
Ronald Cantrell agronomistchief of party February 1982 to January 1984 - 23 PM
Mahlon Lang economist February 1982 to April 1984 - 26 PM
Herbert Ohm agronomistchief of party August 1983 to August 1985 -24 PM
Christopher Pardy economistcomputer analyst December 1983 to Tune 1983 - 16 PM
79
Joseph Nagy economistchief of party July 1984 to April 1985 14-
PM
In addition several short-term technical staff and consultants traveled to Burkina Faso for a total of 185 PM They are as follows
In 979 Kenneth Jones computer specialist at Purdue spent 50 PM to assist our in-country staff in organizing the data management That same year Ms Annie Buryer a sociologist spent 3 months in the field assisting our rural sociologist in setting up the village questionnaires In 1980 Herbert Butler rural sociologist spent 50 PM assisting in the analysis of the collected research dava In 1981 Stan Cohen computer specialist and agricultural economist spent 4 PM in the analysis of socio-economic data Len Malczynski computer specialist also spent 75 PM in the field in organizing the data Iandiing systems Anne-Marie Kaylen MS candidate in the Department of Agricultural Economics spent eight 1PM in the field to collect data for her thesis
Wilford H Morris technical coordinator for the FSU spent 200 PM in the field to provide support to our in-country team
In 1983 Jon Brandt agricultural economist spent 50 PM in Burkina Faso to assist Kirnseyinga Sawadogo in the collection of data for his PhD Thesis In 1984 Charles Rhykerd agronomist and soil specialist spent 75 PM oking with our staff in collecting soil samples and providing agronomLc support to our staff John Sanders as on-campus technical coordinator spent a total of 100 PM in the field working -ith the field economists
Purdue administrative staff also traveled to Burkina Faso during the existence of this project for a total of 45 person months
PM
T Kelley White acting director IPA 50 Paul Farris Head Agricultural Economics Dept 25 D Woods Thomas Director IPIA 150 Katy Ibrahim Administrative Assistant FSU 100 John Sanders Technical Coordinator 75 James L Collom Associate Director IPIA 50
Purdue University also conducted an internal evaluation of project activities in Burkina Faso in 1984 Members of the team who spent one week in-country were
Bernard Liska Dean School of Agricul-ire William Dobson Head Agricultural Economics Department Marvin Phillips Head Agronomy Department D Woods Thomas Director and Associate Dean International Programs in Agriculture
Sawadogo Sibiri participated in the On-Farm Experimentation Workshop University of Harare Zimbabwe (co-sponsored with CIMMYT) February 6-24
80
1984 the East Africa Agricultural Economics Program CIMMYT Nairobi Kenya October 27 to November 6 and in the evaluation of FSR programs with ACPOs in Senegal February 24 to March 1
Three Burkinabe staff enrolled at Purdue University for additional long-term training
Paul Compaore Agricultural Economics MS 1983-1985 Baya Toe Agricultural Economics MS 1983-1985 Kimseyinga Savadogo Agricultural Economics PhD 1979-1986
All have returned to Burkina Faso Dr Savadogo as a professor at the University of Ouagadougou Paul Compaore and Baya Toe are working in the Burkinabe Ministry of Agriculture
All of these educational activities contributed significantly to quality and dependable data collection and team spirit In addition these --aining activities were a significant factor in the transfer of host country technical and research staff to the national agricultural research program IBRAZ
Training for US graduate students was also made possible throughthis project Ms Anne-Marie Kaylen spent eight months in the field colshylecting data for her MS thesis in agricultural economics Also three graduate students funded under the PurdueINTSORMIL project spent eight months each in Burkina Faso working with our staff in support of the project while collecting data for their field research These were Michael Roth PhD Kimseyinga Savadogo PhD and Ann Bukowski MS Under FSU auspices William Jaeger developed his PhD dissertation on the economics of animal traction in Burkina Faso
The Farming Systems Unit project cooperated in the conduct of two regional workshops In September 1983 in cooperation with ICRISAT and IRAT a regional workshop on farmers participation in the development and evaluation of technology was held in Ouagadougou The proceedings of this workshop were published by che International Develpoment Research Centre In April 1985 the FSU in conjunction with the SAFGRAD Coordination Office conducted a workshop on technologies appropriate for farmers in semi-arid West Africa The proceedings of this workshop (in English and French) were distributed widely by the Office of International Programs in Agriculture
Thirty-six research-based technical papers were written and disshytributed under FSU auspices (See Appendix 2 for a listing of these publications)
The Farming Systems Unit project was not without administrative andor logistical problems Included were such things as unavoidable delays in transfer of funds to the field inadequacy of in-country transportation arrangements imperfection in project design establishing FSU relationshipwith national agricultural institutions and international development assistance organizations internal and international political events and the lack of ex-ante long-term contractual and funding commitments Excellent cooperation among the US national regional and international organizations involved in the program made it possible to resolve such issues with minimal impact on project productivity
81
Purdue University is deeply grateful to the OAUSTRC the SAFGRAD and its Consultative and Technical Advisory Committees USAIDOuagadougou AID Washington the government of Burkina Faso ICRISAT IITA and other enshytities for their assistance and cooperation in the conduct of this project Without such the objectives of this ambitious research could not have been attained
82
APPENDIX 2
Publications List
1 FSUSAFGRAD Staff Questionnaire Utilises pour le Etudes Sur les Systems de Production Agricoles Dans Des Villages Echantillons de Haute Volta Farming Systems Unit Project International Programs inAgriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana January 1980
2 Saunders M 0 Farming Systems Research Unit Working papers (1)Agriculture in Upper Volta The Institutional Framework (2) LocalEcology Population and Ethnic Groups in Upper Volta and (3) TheMossi Farming Systems in Upper Volta International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1980
3 Bruyer A Towards a Use of Survey Materials Report on Zone of Zorgho Farming Systems Unit Project International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana May 1980
4 Christensen P J Observations on the Major Classification of Field Trials Used in Farming Systems Research Farming Systems Unit Project International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana January 1981
5 Christensen P J Rock Phosphate Fertilizer in Upper Volta Part 1 Preliminary Report on Policy Implications of Cereal YieldCharacteristics Farming Systems Unit Project International Programsin Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana April 1981
6 Christensen P J and R A Swanson SAFGRADFSU 1981 Research Programs Farfling Systems Unit Project International Programs inAgriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana April 1981
7 Cohen S Costs and Returns of Household Crop Production NedogoUpper Volta Department of Agricultural Economics Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana September 1982
8 Lang M R Cantrell and J IfSanirs Identifying Constraints and Evaluating New Techology in the Purdue Farming Systems Project in Upper Volta in C B Flora (ed) Animals in the Farming SystemKansas State University Manhattan Kansas pp 184-206 1984
9 Jaeger W K Animal Traction and Resource Productivity Evidence from Upper Volta in C B Flora (ed) Animals in the Farming ystem ibid pp 431-460 1984
10 Singh R D E W Kehrberg and W H M Morris Small FarmProduction Systems ii Upper Volta Descriptive and Productive Function Analysis Experiment Station Bulletin Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1984
11 Lang M G and 24 Roth Risk Perceptions and Risk Management byFarmers in Burkina F-aso Paper presented at the Annual FarmingSystems Conference at Kansas State University in 1984
83
12 Rhykerd C L Constraints and Research Needs for Livestock Production in Upper Volta International Programs in AgriculturePurdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1984
13 Sanders J H The Evolution of Farming Systems Research Towards Where International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1984
14 Roth M and J H Sanders An Economic Evaluation of AgriculturalTechnologies and Implications for Development Strategies in Burkina Faso International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana First presented at the Annual Farming SystemsConference at Kansas State University in 1984
15 Lang M G and R C Cantrell Accenting the Farmers Role Purdue Farming Systems Unit in P Matlon R Cantrell D King and M Benoit-Cattin (edited) Coming Full Circle Farmers Participation inthe Development of Technology International Developmernt Research Center Ottawa Canada pp 63-70 1984
16 Lang M H Ohm and R Cantrell Adaptability Analysis of Farmer-Managed Trials in Farming Systems Research International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1985
17 Lang M G Agricultural Production and Marketing Activities of Women in Burkina Faso International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1985
18 Lang M G Crop and Livestock Marketing Patterns in Burkina FasoInternational Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1985
19 Pardy C R Cereal Sales Behavior Among Farm Households in FourVillages in Burkina Faso International Programs i- AgriculturePurdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1985
20 Nagy J G and H W Ohm Economic Analysis of Tied Ridges and Fertilization in Farmer-Managed Sorghum Trials in Burkina Faso Paperpresented at the International Conference of AgricultLal Economists Malaga Spain 1985
21 Nagy J G L L Ames and H W Ohm Tecchnology Evaluation PilicyChange and Farmer Adoption in Burkina Fa Paper presented at the Farming Systems Symposium Kansas State University Manhattan Kansas 1985
22 Schaber L A Literature Review of Soil Fertility in the West Africa Semi-Arid Tropics (WASAT) International Programs in AgriculturePurdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1985
23 Sanders J H J G Nagy and B Shapiro Developing and EvaluatingNew Agricultural Technology for the Sahel A Case Study in Burkina Faso Submitted to Economic Development and Cultural Change 1985
84
24 Ohm H W and J G Nagy (Editcrs) Appropriate Technologies for Farmers in Semi-Arid West Africa International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1985 359 pages (also available in French)
25 Roth M P Abbott J Sanders and L McKinzie An Application of Whole-Farm Modelling to New Technology Evaluation Central Mossi Plateau Burkina Faso International Programs in Agriculture Purdue bniversity West Lafayette Indiana 1986
26 Diallo N N and J C Nagy Burkini Faso Access and Control of Resources in the Farming Systems Recent Legal Political and Socio-Economic Changes Paper presented at the Conference on Gender Issues in Farming Systems Research and Extension Gainesville Florida February 1986
27 Nagy J C and L L Ames Evaluation of New Technologies in Burkina Faso Using Whole Farm Modelling Paper presented at the Annual Conference of American Agricultural Economists Reno Nevada 1986
28 Sanders J H and B Shapiro Agricultural Technology Development in Burkina Faso in Chapter 12 of Y Moses (ed) Proceedings African Agricultural Develompent Conference Technoloiy Ecology and Society California State Polytechnic Institute Pomona California 1986
29 Nagy J G H W Ohm L L Ames and L D Schaber Analysis of IITASAFGRAD Mechanical Ridge Tier International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1986
30 Nagy J G H W Ohm and S Sawadogo Burkina Faso A Case Study of the Purdue UniversitySAFGRAD Farming Systems Project forthcoming in the Florida Farming Systems Project Case Studies Series 1986
31 Ames L L A Preliminary Report on the Evaluation of New Technologies in Burkina Faso International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1986
32 Annual Report (English) 1979
33 Annual Report (English) 1980
34 Annual Report (English) 1982
35 Annual Report (English amp French) 1983
36 Annual Report (English amp French) 1984
37 Annual Report (English) 1985
38 End of Project Report 1986
85
Theses List
1 Kaylen A M Current Farming Conditions in Nedogo and Digre Upper Volta MS Thesis Department of Agricultural Economics Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana August 1982
2 Jaeger W K Agricultural Mechanization The Economics of Animal Traction in Burkina Faso Stanford University unpublished PhD thesis 1984 To be published as a book by Westview Press
3 Bukowski AS Performance of Grain Markets in Selected Areas of Burkina Faso MS Thesis Department of Agricultural Economics Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana May 1986 Utilized some of the data and research support from the FSU project in Upper Volta but was directly supported by INTSORMIL
4 Roth M An Econoimc Evaluation of Agricultural Policy in Burkina Faso West Africa A Sectoral Modeling Approach unpublished PhD dissertation Department of Agricultural Economics Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana May 1986 Utilized some of the data and research support from the FSU project in Upper Volta but was directly supported by INTSORMIL
5 Savadogo K An Analysis of the Economic and Socio-Demographic Determinants (E Household Food Consumption in Ouagaodugou Burkina Faso unpublished PhD dissertation Department of Agricultural Economics Purdvr University West Lafayette Indiana 1986
(Adapted from World Bank 1985)200 o0 200
ALGERIA -200
20
MAURITANIAOE
SahLan NLMALI 3XJ50n n6038 0
uda n - ne13A v C e 0L 0
10 GUINEA-BISS1U 00 2 00 GUINEA i S h i and Sud -nia Zones
SIERRA IVORY 0 IERA LEONECOAST
0HNI -
CLIMATIC ZONES AEO1 o0O Zones Rainfall
-- 350 - 30-Sahelo-aian P Sahelo- aian NL50 - 350
Sudanian 600 -800 0Komts 200 400 600 Sudano-Guinean Above 800 K oM lers shy
200 4 00
deg deg20 0 100 o 10c0 deg 20
Figure 1 West African Sahelian and Sudanian Zones
3
Since the WASAT does nLt have the manland pressure of much of Asia and Asia has been successful in rapidly increasing agricultural production in its prime agricultural areas it is useful to look at the resource base in this region The present manland ratios in the WASAT average roughly15 persons per sq km (World Bank 1985) compared with up to 600 persons per sq km in Asia (McNamara 1985) The poorer agricultural resource base of the WASAT however cannot support the high man-land ratio of Asia (Matlon 1985) For example in the older settlement villages of the Central Plateau of Burkina Faso manland ratios are as high as 60 persons per sqkm (World Bank 1985) These high manland ratios relative to the resource base have been causing the breakdown of the traditional bush-fallow farming systems Traditionally the crop area was cultivated for 3 to 5 years and then left idle for a decade or more to restore soil fertility In many of the older settlement villages increased population has meant limited access to new land a shortening of the fallow rotation period and the culshytivation of more marginal land (Norman et al 1982 Dugue 1985) For example in the village (Figure 2)of Nedogo Burkina Faso many fields have been cultivated as long as the farmers can remember (FSUSAFGRAD 1983) Moreover almost all the crop residues are utilized for feed or building materials or else burned further exhausting the fertility of the soil Declinin7 soil fertility in the older settled regions has bei disshyrupting the cereal production systems pushing the cereals into more marshyginal areas and encouraging a substitution of millet for sorghum (Ames 1986)
During the high rainfall period of the fifties and early sixties intensive crop production was further extended into the Sahelo-Sudanian zone (World Bank 1985) With the droughts and increased desertification of the late sixties and seventies many have become concerned with the posshysible interaction of human settlement and further desertification (Nicholson 1982 World Bank 1985) While this debate has not been resolved there is no doubt that the resource base in much of the Sahelo-Sudanian zone has further deteriorated The cereals deficit problem has become increasingly serious
All three phenomena--the disappearing fallow system the failure to incorporate crop residues and the extension of crop cultivation into more marginal agricultural regions--lead to further soil detcrioration in the absence of technological intervention In overpopulated agriculturalregions such as the Central Plateau of Burkina Faso the bush fallow systemis being replaced by a permanent cultivation system characterized by verylow and stagnant cereal yields (Lang et al 1984 see Ruthenberg 1980 for other examples of this dynamics)
Not all the WASAT is overpopulated Rather many of the regions can be characterized as frontier zones For example the eastern region of Burkina Faso (ie Diapangou Figure 2) with man-land ratios of 15 persons
I
oBURKINA FASO I Principal Cities 3 350
FSU Survey Villages Dori
OuaigoyaBangasse
deg 00 1i0
Dissankuy FauF
Bdobo ogo NGourma 800bullDioulasso bulloBE -I -NIN
TOGOBanfora
GHANA CLIMATIC ZONES Zones Rainfall
IVORY COAST Sahelian NLC- 350IVRYCASlSahelo-Sudanian 350 - 600
Sudanian 600 - 800 Sudano-Guinean Above 800
(I) NLC NORTHERN LIMIT OF CULTIVATION (2) ISOHYETS INn
00
Figure 2 FSU research sites and climatic zones of Burkina Faso
5
per sq km has surplus land and follows the bush-fallow system of cultivashytion However even on the frontier as population pressure increases in the next five years a phenomenon similar to what is now taking place on the Central Plateau of Purkina Faso would be expected to occur It is becoming increasingly important to develop land substituting technologies for the overpopulated regions And although labor substituting technolshyogies are presently still very important on the frontier at the present pace of developnnt the frontier zones will confront similar problems to those in the overpopulated regions during the next decade
Given the present cereals crisis in the WASAT it is becoming critical to develop or ad~pt new agricultural technologies which will reverse the Malthusian trends In the mid-sixties before the start ofthe Green Revolution similar Malthusian statements were made about the agricultural potential of the Indian sub-continent However during the late sixties and seventies agricultural regions in Asia with irrigation or regular assured rainfall had the mosc rapid growth rates in technology diffusion ever empirically documented Although the resource endowment in the WASAT is not as great as that of the Punjab and similar Asian regions research reported here will atuempt to show that there is substantial potential for cereal technology development in the WASAT
The technology development process in the Purdue UniversitySAFGRAD Farming Systems Unit Project had two phases The first phase was the development of a methodology to identify the pressing constraints to cereal production increase and the testing out on farmers fields of technology alternatives available from the experiment station and from similar climatic regions in other countries The second stage was the continued evaluation of successful technologies over a sufficiently long time period and in sufficient detail to allow researchers a feeling of reasonable conshyfidence in their recommendations to both experiment station researchers and to the extension service and government officials involved in agricultural development The principle chapters of this report (III and V) are conshycerned with these two phases of the technology development process The basic methodological concepts potentially useful in other WASAT countries from the farming systems research in Burkina Faso are synthesized in Chapter III In the technology evaluation of Chapter V the results of other WASAT agricultural researchers are combined with those of the Purdue UniversitySAFGRAD Farming Systems program to give a more comprehensive evaluation of the present state of cereal technology development in the WASAT The conclusions synthesize the technology evaluation to draw out the implications for agricultural policy and for future extension and research
6
Footnotes
Rainfall averages have declined by 100 to 150 mm per year since the mid
1960s Updated isohyets using 1961-1985 data were not available In depth information on the countries and regions of the WASAT can be obtained from Kowal and Kassam 1978 McNamara 1985 Norman et al 1981 and World Bank 1985
At present there is some scope for migration to lower population denshysity areas with better soils and rainfall within the WASAT since health investments have been made to eradicate river blindness in some of the more fertile valleys (Sanders et al 1986) Several relocation proshygrams have already been undertakca in Burkina Faso (McMillan 1979) Relocation programs are costly and represent a short to intermediate solution for the WASAI Also people are reluctant to relocate and leave family friends and familar surroundings
CHAPTER II
THE PURDUE SAFGRAD FARMING SYSTEMS UNIT
The Purdue University Farming Systems Unit (FSU) funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) was part of the Semi-Arid Food Grain Research and Development Project (SAFGRAD) from December 1978 to June 1986 SAFGRAD is a regional research coordinating program implemented by the Coordination Office of the Scientific Technical and Research Commission of the Organization of African Unity (OAUSTRC) The SAFGRAD project works in cooperation with 28 sub-Saharan member countries with the coordination office located in Ouagadougou Burkina Faso The principal objective of the SAFGRAD project is to coordinate and strengthen programs in the semi-arid regions of sub-Saharan Africa that are involved in improving sorghum maize millet cowpea and groundnut yields
In the West African Semi-Arid Tropics (WASAT) SAFGRAD coordinates a research and pre-extension program The regional on-station component research is headquartered at the Central Experiment Station at Kamboinse in Burkina Faso and undertaken by IITA and ICRISAT Another component of SAFGRAD in the WASAT is the Accelerated Crops Production Officers (ACPO) program which conducts regional pre-extension and demonstration trials An integral part of the overall program is the farming systems unit which provides linkages between on-station research and the ACPOextension proshygrams The research and extension personnel of SAFGRAD (including the FSR unit) meet yearly to submit an annual report to a Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) The TAC reviews the research programs and submits the results and recommendations to the Consultative Committee (CC) which is a management and policy committee for SAFGRAD The results are passed on to host country research and extension institutions
Within the SAFGRAD framework farming systems research for Burkina Faso was provided by Purdue University for seven years up to June 1986 In the seventies farming systems methodology was still in its infancy Its mandate included the development of methodological guidelines that could be implemented in host country national and SAFGRAD sponsored farming systems programs The specific objectives of FSU were as follows
1 to identify the principle constraints to increased food producshytion
2 to identify technologies appropriate for farmers which could overshycome the production constraints
3 to develop and implement a multidisciplinary research method which could guide production technology and production research to directly address these production constraints
8
4 to identify the elements of that method which could be implemented in national farming systems research programs and
5 to train host country personnel to assume increasing responsibilshyity in their contribution to research
During the life of the FSU program agronomic and socio-economic research was conducted at the on-farm level in five villages (Figure 2) The pecific operational procedures and evolution of the FSU program are reported in Nagy et al 1986b The agronomic and soci-economic field campaign findings of the FSU program are presented in FSU Annual Reports and other FSU publications
In the final year of the contract the FSU program completed the transfer of its in-country taff arid program to tie national agricultural research institution of Burkina Faso (IBRAZ) FSU also worked with the IFAD supported SAFGRAD farming systems personnel aho backstop the national farming systems programs in Butkina Faso and Benin Through regional symshyposia and consultation the methodology and results were made available to other SAFOPAD countries as well Details of the program transfer and field staff training component of objective 5 are reported in the 1985 FSU Annual Report (Nagy and Ohm 1986)
CHAPTER III
FARMING SYSTEMS METHODOLOGY IN THE WEST AFRICAN SEMI-ARID TROPICS (WASAT)
Introduction
The basic concept of farming systems research is that the research system could function more efficiently if more information on the conshystraints which prevent farmers from improving their well-being was obtained at an earlier stage of the research development process than is common in the developing countries Farm-level constraints can be identified with both surveys and on-farm trials A further extension is to supplement the on-farm trials with whole-farm modeling This chapter will be concerned with all three approaches
In developed countries the two-way linkages of communication between farmers and agricultural scientists function better than in the WASAT due to higher educational levels of the farmers better agricultural informashytion systems and financial mechanisms in developed countries which reward the agricultural research establishments and individual scientists for their contributions to resolving farm-level production problems Farming systems esearch can provide an alternative communication linkage which does not require advancements in general education or major changes in the institutional orientation of national research systems
The clientele of Farming Systems Research will depend upon the instishytutional setting and the stage of development of the technology In the initial phases of the agricultural development process as in the WASAT the most important directional flow of information is to the researchers for several reasons First farming systems even in low input agriculshyture are very complex with many systems interactions Farmers have multiple objectives and constraints and these can vary in importance and evolve over time and even in response to the conditions of the production season (Norman 1982)
Agricultural scientists in developing countries often underinvest in understanding these complex systems and farmers objectives before beginshyning research Further they may not adequately respond to knowledge which is available When farmers do not adopt the technologies produced on the experiment station and recommended to them the initial reaction of agricultural scientists in developing countries is often that the problem of non-adoption is with the farmers the extension service or national economic policies rather than with the technologies themselves
Technology development requires a thorough understanding of the scienshytific concepts applied on the experiment station plus a multi-disciplinary approach to understanding the complexity of the farmers environment farmshying systems and decision-making process The most fundamental difference between the experiment station and farmers fields is the necessary shift
10
from component parts of new technologies as produced on the experiment station to systems with impor ant interactions such as are characteristic of farmers production systems
Farming Systems Research helps to overcome these differences by nashybling agricultural scientists to improve their understanding of the comshyplexity of the farmers systems and thereby become more efficient at idenshytifying and resolving the research problems involved in overcoming farmers constraints Two desired final products are a more efficient agricultural research system and an increase in mutual comprehension between farmers and researchers Another product is the facilitation of adoption of new sysshytems of agricultural technology so that these systems can be more rapidly incorporated into the testing and diffusion program of the extension servshyice
The principal stages in farming systems research can be identified by responding to the following questions
a) What do you do first to describe the farmers production systems How much description is enough
b) How do you plan and organize on-farm trials When do you do it What are the differences between experiment station and on-farm trials
c) How do you analyze and supplement the data coming out of the onshyfarm trials What are the relevant questions to be answered about new technology performance on farms
d) At some point in technology development outside factors (exogenous variables) such as economic policy or the further development of input production or distribution capacity such as a fertilizer marketing system improved credit or a seed industry may be constraining technology introduction How does FSR set up its own boundaries while still maximizing its effectiveness in providing relevant information to facilitate the production of new technologies
e) Who should do the farming systems research Presently International Agricultural Research Centers spend an estimated 10 to 15 million dollars annually on FSR (Anderson and Dillon 1985 p 1)
The following sections of the paper will attempt to address these speshycific questions on farming systems methodology Clearly there will be some biases from the experiences of the Farming Systems Unit in Burkina Faso and the otber FSR experiences of the authors These eperiences will be utilized as illustrations
11
Describing Farmers Environments Production Systems and Objectives The Baseline Study Stage
If the principal objective of tarming systems research is to improve the understanding of agricultural scientists about farm-level conditions then this data-collection or description process must begin with them They help to define the research problems and objectives of the fieldwork and to understand the particular target group of farmers Agricultural scientists need to be involved in farm-level research design in order to provide more information and to evaluate the accuracy of their hypotheses about farmer conditions and decision-making
The utilization of baseline studies for developing research priorities requires the identification and ranking of the principle conshystraints to increased output of the commodities studied This is not a simple process since there will be a strong bias from the individual disshyciplines of the researchers in the definition of the farm-level constraints Breeders will identify varietal characteristics for overcomshying specific yield constraints pathologists diseases economists will point out particular policies or markets which reduce the profitability of specific new technologies Hence a multi-disciplinary approach to the definition of constraints will be necessary from the beginning of the research design process Some investment by researchers in the tnderstandshying of other disciplines will also be necessary
Useful baseline research has included the economic quantification of production losses from various insects and diseases This information helped confirm the research strategies of resistance breeding for field beans at CIAT (Sanders 1984 Sanders and Lynam 1982) Similarly in Burkina Faso the initial anthropological descriptions of faring systems (M Saunders 1980) and the economic analysis of farmers objectives and seasonal labor constraints helped provide orientation for agricultural researchers in the farm trials (Lang et al 1984)
An important issue within this baseline stage is that it is extremely easy to overinvest in data collection and descriptive surveys Moreover much of the literature on farming systems puts an excessive emphasis on baseline data collection so that the research problem identification hyposhytheses analytical methodologies and even literature reviews are neglected The frequent consequence is the amassing of large quantities of data which are only partially analyzed Even with analysis much of the data collection traditionally undertaken at this stage of FSR has resulted in interesting descriptions of little relevance to researchers in reshydefining their research priorities
There are several methods for avoiding the pitfalls of random and largely irrelevant data collection The first is an extension of a method presently utilized by many agricultural scientists to identify for themshyselves the important constraints in farmers fields This involves their going into the field to see farm-level problems in their disciplinary
12
3 area A simple extension is to make these field trips multi-disciplinary and to involve some pre-trip discussion and mutual definition of field objectives If farm-level interviewing remains unstructured the datashyamassing problem can be avoided Multi-disciplinary collaboration is begun and can bd continued in the development of a report synthesizing the field observations Often these initial trips or sondeos have led to more formal multi-disciplinary questionnaire development and surveying in a second stage Clearly with the involvement of several disciplines the demand for data can increase exponentially
To more rapidly interest the agricultural scientists a different technique is suggested At any given time agricultural scientists genershyally have their own ideas of what will work on farmers fields These ideas can come directly from their own experiments from observations of farmers in other regions or from Vhe literature The suggestion here is to move rapidly into on-farm trials This will then give a defined frameshywork for supplementing on-farm trials with diagnostic surveys which have well-defined objectives ie to better evaluate specific socio-economic issues involved in introducing these new technologies tested on the farmshyers fields into the farmers production system
In these baseline surveys of the functioning of the farm and household systems at the beginning of an FSR project the anthropologists and sociologists have often made outstanding contributions to our understanding (M Saunders 1980 Reeves and Frankenberger 1982) When these surveys by the social scientists have been integrated with the research objectives of agricultural scientists their utility has been further increased It is recommended that a farming systems project begin with baseline surveys of farm and household conditions in each major target area preferably undershytaken by an anthropologist (also see Simmonds 1984 p 74) These baseshyline studies and a commencement of on-farm trials in the first production season are suggested as the appropriate way to begin farming systems reshysearch in the WASAT
The principal emphasis here is on moving rapidly to on-farm trials with supplementary analysis to provide understanding of the potential role of the new technologies in the whole farm system The methodology for this type of evaluation will be explained in detail in the fourth section on Evaluation As this type of on-farm testing and modeling analysis is being undertaken further diagnostic surveys are often useful to complement the principal investigation of the on-farm trials and farm modeling An exshyample in the Burkina Faso FSU program after three to five years of on-farm testing in different villages was a survey to evaluate adoption by parshyticipant and non-participant farmers of the new technologies tested
Designing and Implementing On-Farm Trials
There are two central issues in the implementation of on-farm trials First multi-disciplinary collaboratin is essential especially between agricultural scienmtists and economists Secondly the research objectives
13
of the experiment station and on-farm trials are different hence the organization design and arnalysis of the on-farm trials are different from those on the experiment station
True multi-disciplinary collaboration is not easy since each discishypline has its body of literature its journals certain statistical methods customarily dominated by its practitioners and even its philosophical attitudes about research and the process of agricultural development Moreover universities and many agricultural research institutions are organized by discipline Promotions in universities are linked to publicashytions in the high prestige journals of individual disciplines
To overcome these barriers between disciplines strong institutional support and continued personal relationships are both required There is a tendency in farming systems projects to give control of the on-farm trials to either the biological or the social scientists or to compartmentalize their efforts For example the agricultural scientists might manage the researcher-managed on-farm trials and the economists the farmer-managed trials Or the agricultural scientist might ask the economists help in interpreting data without collaborating with himher on field research planning and design
The most basic differences between agricultural scientists and econoshymists are in their treatment of data (Collinson 1981 p 442) Agriculshytural scientists are trained to be extremely careful in data generation to verify results over a number of years and to utilize variations of analyshysis of variance to analyze the significance of yield differences However policymakers generally need new technology recommendations in short time periods and farmers are more interested in the profitability and fit into their operati s of one or two new systems of production than in the idenshytification of the level of significance of the treatments and their interactions
Economists with simple modeling and synthetic estimates (judgements of agricultural scientsts) can help fill the gap between the public policymakers and the farmers demands for new technology information and the output from agricultural scientists Some knowledge of the agriculshytural sciences and some simple modeling are the necessary components of the economists contribution The primary requisite for successful interdisshyciplinary collaboration is the desire of the team to respond rapidly to real world problems of technology evaluation even if the data utilized are preliminary and some of them are synthetic Preliminary results can always be refined and improved with further experiments andor data collection and analysis
One important contribution of Farming Systems Research has been to demonstrate the strategic importance of on-farm testing of new technologies as a critical component of the agricultural research process (for an estishymate of the rate of return to this research see Martinez and Arauz 1984) The primary unit in new technology production is the experiment station
14
However once the component parts of new technologies have been tested on the experiment station they can be combined into packages and tested under a wide range of farming conditions (Figure 3) The synergistic or multishyplicative (rather than additive) impact of combining several factors of production is well kriown in the agricultural sciences The individual factors are identified and measured on the experiment station In the onshyfarm trials combinations of factors are evaluated to identify new systemsof production that are profitable and fit into farmers production systems
On the experiment station non-treatment inputs are held at fixed but generally high levels so that they do not affect the performance of the treatment input(s) Usually the potential for static (increased variance) in the response of the treatment input(s) is reduced by the high levels of utilization of other inputs Experiment station trials tend to study one or sometimes two factors in considerable detail Experiment stations are usually selected in the best agricultural regions and over time due to different cultural practices the agricultural conditions become substanshytially different from those on farmers fields (Sanders and Lynam 1982 Byerlce Collinson et al 1981)
Once the more basic experiments have been undertaken on the station and before recommendations are made farm-level testing is necessary If the technology performance depends upon soil climate insect or disease incidence the farm trials can help identify these factors and estimate the economic impact of overcoming the specific constraint at different levels of its incidence For example fertilizers will have a larger impact in low soil fertility regions and a disease resistant variety will be more impressive where the disease occurs A water retention technique such as tied ridges wouli be expected to work better in the heavier soils In sandier soils the ridges will be more rapidly destroyed by wind or water Moreover the on-farm trials provide a crude estimate of the relative importance of the specific constraints on the farmers fields during the production period evaluated
One method for analyzing these betwcen-farm differences in new techshynology puiformance in greater detail is to utilize a large number of farms for the farm-level trials Repetitions are often made by increasing the number of farms rather than includi ig repetitions on each farm site (DeDatta et al 1978 Sanders and Lynam 1982) One implication of this design is that variance within farms cannot he separated Another is that within any constrained planting zeason a larger number of farms can be included
Another way to handle the between-farm variation in technology perforshymance is to stratify the environments in which the technology is evaluated
15
Experiment Station On-Farm Trials
More Basic Research More Applied Research
Component Research Systems or Package Research
Variance from Non-Treatment Analyze Variance from Non-Factors Minimized Treatment Factors
Repetitions on Same Experiment Replications Across Farms
New Technologies Originate Hrre New Technologies Evaluated Here Primary Activity Secondary Activity
Emphasis on Feedback of Information to Researchers in the Experiment Station
Based Upon Technology Performance on Farms--Request Technology Modifications from the Experiment Station
To Extension Service for Further Testing and Dissemination
Figure 3 Stages of the research process
SOURCE Adapted from Sanders and Lynam 1982 p 99
16
Soil types rainfall regimes or even farmer characteristics can be utilshyized to define research domains However the performance of many new technologies under different farm-level conditions is often a stochastic event The incidence of diseases and insects is unknown at planting time so there is no way to define research domains for these problems If there is a large sample the data carn be stratified after the trials Since it is often difficult in practice to minimize the on-farm performance variashytions of new technologies by defining research (or recommendation) domains with homogeneous characteristics it is frequently necessary to employlarger sample sizes ie more on-farm trials The number of trials necessary will also depend upon the types of technologies evaluated
In the initial years of on-farm testing (early and mid-70s)economists and other social scientists frequently administered the trials Over time agricultural scientists have generally taken over the implemenshytation of these trials This transition has improved trial quality since agricultural scientists are trained for this activity However the failure to adequately specify the objectives of on-farm testing can lead to trials which are only replicas of experiment centtation trials
With the above detailed examination of the on-farm methodologies it is easy to forget that the origin of new technologies is the experimentstation This is the primary unit in the technology development processThe on-farm testing performs an important evaluation function in the reshysearch production process but it is secondary to the primary organ of agricultural research the experiment station Moreover the quality of the on-farm trials will depond upon the input from the agriculturalscientist In the design and the evaluation phases the interdisciplinary input especially fcom econiomists will be critical
The integration of the on-farm and station-based research and their links to diagnostic surveys of the farmers in the target regions and to the operational research utilizing the data resulting from the on-farm trials are [llustrated in Figure 4 As mentioned previously both the diagnostic surveys and the evaluation of on-farm trials have important roles and should function simultaneously The operational research for the evaluashytion of these on-farm triaLs will be considered in the next section
Evaluation of On-Farm Technology Performance
The on-farm trials combine several factors or component parts preshyviously evaluated on he experiment station into different systems or packages Isolating each factor aid its interactions in these trials freshyquently becomes unmanageable Beets (1982) cites an IRRI cropping systemexperiment with 750 possible treatment combinations However 7 the princishypal concern of the on-farm trials is to identify combinationswhich are profitable of factorsand fit into the farmers systems of produccion
17
Target group farmers of a recommendation
domain in a Vagion
Survey diagnosis of farmer priorities resource and environment problems and development opportunities
Identification ofunsolved technical problems and possible new practices and materials relevant to farmers development opportunities
On-farm adaptive research
Operational research for identification and evaluation of materials and techniques
offering potential for problemsolution and the exploitation
of opportunities
Station-based technical
On-farm testing via experiments on apparentl relevant materials and techniques under farmers conditions
Use of existing body of knowledge of materials and techniques suitable for the climate and soils of the ion
Component research usingcommodity and disciplinary
research solvingpriority technical problems
and investigating possible new materials and practices
Figure 4 Schematic view of farming systems research method (after Collinson 1982)
18
The treatments of the on-farm trials representing different systems pass through three phases of evaluation (Figure 5) The first phase is identical to the experiment-station analysis some variation of analysis of variance (ANOVA) It determines whether under farmers conditions there are significant yield differences with the new technologies as comparedwith the treatment representing traditional farmers practices
However technology needs to move beyond yield differences to be acceptable to farmers With a minimal increase in data requirements from the local environment the yield data from the treatments are converted into gross and then net revenue utilizing product prices and input costs This simple budgeting answers the second question in the flowchart of Figure 5 Is the new technology more profitable than farmers traditional practices
Mention should be made here of two frequently cited problems with simple budgeting (a) price variation over time and within the production season and (b) costing of non-traded inputs such as land and family labor Product prices can vary substantially within a year especially with the customary post-harvest price collapse and between years in regions with substantial climatic fluctuations and limited governmental role in pricestabilization Moreover input costs will depend upon government subsidies and the real input costs to the farmer will also depend upon the availability of an input such as fertilizer at the right place and the right time Questions about the appropriate prices and costs to be utilshyized in the evaluation are valid concerns which need to be dealt with in the economic analysis of new technology
Price variability and the effects of government policy and market development mean that profitability is a complicated decision which can be influenced by the farmers marketing strategies and by macro factors outshyside the farmers control Nevertheless farmers need to be able to devise some strategy to make a profit from a new technology Sensitivity analysiswhich varies the prices and costs over the relevant range can be utilized to respond to this problem The simple budgeting analysis of on-farm trials is usually a mean or median estimate The variation in yield pershyformance and prices received between farms is a useful complement to this measure
Some of the relevant inputs that neeJ to be costed for budgetinganalysis may not have a market price In the WASAT family labor duringcertain periods for performing specific cultural operations such as the first weeding has a very high implicit value and may even be constrainingcertain types of output expansion Mathematical programming models take into account the implicit value of the inputs and put a cost on them (shadow price) whereas budgeting treatments make some arbitrary assumpshytions about the labor market Land rental depreciation of the capitalinput and management costs are also difficult to estimate and are
19
Trial New farm results trials
(1)
Are there Yes significant Increases No
Infarm yields with the new technologytech~(noloy
(2) farms be
Ysmore
Is thenwtechnology
profitable than
farmers practices~(multiple
Noaffecting
stratified bycharacteristics
the successful
performance of the newregres-
Yes
sion cluster analysis)
(3)
Yes new technology N Newfit into the No [experiments
farmers production system(programming marketing)
extension service Analysis and diagnosisL
for further testing feedback for andor technology redesign
extension
FLgure 5 Flow Chart for New Technology Evaluation in Farin Trials
Source Sanders and Lynam 1982 p 100
In any of the three stages of evaluation a new technology treatment may not pass the criteria based upon mean values Then astratification of farms is attempted upon an a priori basis For example the performance of a fertilizer technology would beInfluenced by the soil types Ifthere were two types of soils and there was a return to fertilization on one and not the other thenstratification into these two groups would be undertaken For the subgroup of farms where the fertilizer technology waseffective the three stages of evaluation would commence again The subgroup where fertilization was not effective would raiseresearch questions for analysis and diagnosis as Indicated in the above flowchart
20
often omitted in the simple or partial budgeting In spite of the difshyficulties of costing some inputs and the price variation profitability comparisons with sensitivity analysis give substantially more information than yield comparisons
Nevertheless even profitability is not a sufficient criteria for farmer acceptance A new system may be profitable but may require more labor at a peak period than the farmer can release from his other operashytions or the new activity may have much higher capital requirements than the farmer can obtain The third question (Figure 5) is whether the techshynology fits into the farmers production system Whereas simple budgeting can indicate that one activity is more profitable than another mathematishycal programming takes into account all other present and potentialactivities and the available on-farm and off-farm resources Utilizing this technique and the above information an estimate of the extent of potential adoption of a new technology on a representative farm can be made Moreover the farm-level constraints to the further adnption of more profitable nctivities can be identified Clearly the value of this modelshying will depend upon the researchers understanding of the farming systpmand his ability to simplify the model to the essential elements
These mathematical programming whole-farm modeling techniques have been operationalized at the farm level for approximately twenty years so their practical value in assisting public and farmer decision-making in developed countries has been repeatedly demonstrated (Doster et al 1981 McCarl 1982) One difficulty in the implementation of this technique in developing countries has been the computer requirement however the rapid diffusion of micro computers to the developing countries is resolving this problem even in the WASAT Nevertheless there is a necessary time investshyment involved in training the technicians economists and agricultural scientists to implement the se models and to interpret the results
Mathematical programming forces researchers to focus their data colshylection on the systems problems of production in a whole-farm context (forreviews and applications see Anderson et al 1985 Ghodake and Hardakef 1981 Roth et al 1986) Simple technical coefficients representing the relationships between inputs and outputs and the resources available to the farmer are the relevant data sets for evaluation of profitability and the fit of the new technologies into the farmers systems of productionAdjustments in the modeling can be made for more complicated farmer beshyhaviors than profit maximization Risk avoidance can be explicitlyincluded in the analysis with programming Other constraints imposed byeconomic and technical factors can frequently be included
Another step in technology evaluation could be the analysis of the intra- and inter-household effects (see McKee 1984 Nagy Ohm and Sawadogo 1986) There has been much concern recently with the role of women in farm production and consumption analysis more specific considerashytion of their roles in land use investment and consumption decisions are warranted Moreover specific technologies could have equity effects on
21
different types o6 farms and policymakers are often concerned with these potential outcomes
Many other considerations could also be raised such as environmental concerns or the cultural trauma often associated with economic or institushytional change However the emphasis of this paper is responding to the three questions in the flow diagram of Figure 5 Positive answers to these questions have been associated with farmer adoption of new technologies in both Colombia (Sanders and Lynam 1982 p 104) and Burkina Faso (Sanders et al 1985 pp 24-28) thus providing support for the evaluation criteria presented here These evaluation criteria as reflected in the three questions of Figure 5 appear to be logical simple and powerful for undertaking farm-level evaluation of new technologies
Micro vs Macro Approaches to Farming Systems Research
The farming system fits into and is affected by many larger systems Agricultural policy the availability of inputs and the functioning of the product markets all affect farm-level decisions about new technologies and farm-level planning for the development of new technologies
The most conservative approach in on-farm technology development is to assume that all these systems are not evolving and to attempt to develop new farming systems for the present levels of development in the other systems In the WASAT this orientation would precipitate a search for minimum input cost systems such as
a) new varieties used without chemical inputs such as inorganic fertilizer
b) higher densities c) different planting dates d) different rotations e) more systematic use of multiple cropping f) more utilization of on-farm inputs such as mulch and manure
These types of marginal changes are attempts to obtain small yield increments utilizing either available resources on the farm or an input such as a new variety which requires a minimal cash expenditure Oneshyinput changes of available resources such as planting dates and rotations are easy for farmers to implement and observe and many farmers carry on small experiments of this type The observation that farmers are not utilizing these adjustments appears to be good evidence that there are technical reasons for them not to utilize them G~ferally the yield effects of the small adjustments ate either very small or under certain natural condit ns they precipitate other problems irn the cropping system For example in Colombia higher field bean densities significantly inshycreased disease incidence even with spraying (CIAT 1979 p 92)
In the last decade the French international agricultural research institute (IRAT) has been joined by three other institutes (CIMMYT
22
ICRISAT and IITA) in the WASAT Their principal research activity has been the development of new food crop varieties especially cereals Yet few cereal varieties have been successful enough to displace local cultivars Matlon (1985) estimated that the new cereal varieties presently occupy less than 5 of the WASAT crop area In our view new varieties unaccompanied by other inputs belong in this group of marginal changes which have had little impact Why Much of the WASAT is characterized by inadequate and irregular rainfall and low fertility soils These are difficult agricultural conditions for one-inpit changes Therefore it appears that WASAT farmers will neei to itilize higher levels oflyurchased inputs and to take more risks in order t) increase their incomes
Presently the level of purchased input utilization in the WASAT especially chemical inputs is extremely low The eight Sahelian countries have the lowest chemical fertilizer consumption in the world at less than 3 kgha on crops Animal traction is still in the introductory stage at less than 15 of the farmers in the WASAr (Matlon 1985) Moreover only a smail portion of the cereals are marketed (less than 10 in FSU sample villages on the Central Plateau in Burkina Faso) Only 3 of the cropland in the eight Sahelian countries is irrigated (Matlon 1983) With these low levels of input use and infrastructure it does not appear to be approshypriate to develop new technologies for high levels of input use However it is important to make improvements in the marketing systems so that modshyerate input levels can be utilized and there will be increased marketing of the cereals
Marginal changes such as the minimal input utilization changes disshycussed previously are not expected to be sufficient to interest farmers or to lead to sustained yield increases Moderate input levels including chemical inputs are expected to be necessary to obtain significant yield increases which fit economically into the farmers production systems (see Chapter V for specific details on chemical fertilizer) Hence as new technologies are being developed and implemented over time input and proshyduct marketing institutions must also evolve The development of these markets may require governmental support and further research The effishyciency of the para-statal product marketing agencies and the role of prishyvate and public institutions in input markets are two primary issues of concern in the present agricultural development literature on Sub-Saharan Africa
What role should FSR projects have in influencing agricultural policy and other macro issues Historically there has been an urban bias in agricultural policies in most WASAT countries To keep food prices low for urban consumers WASAT governments have frequently intervened via parashystatal marketing organizations To compensate farmers for the low product prices these same governments often have provided input subsidies to farmshyers Presently the World Bank and US AID hTje been pressuring WASAT governments to eliminate these input subsidies At least in the short run this will reduce the profitability of agriculture discourage investshyment in agriculture and delay technology adoption Part of the evaluation
23
of new technologies by the FSR program should include some sensitivity analysis to estimate the farm-level effects of various agricultural polishycies including the elimination of input subsidies
In the recent summarv of FSR for the World Bank (Simmonds 1984) a distinction was drawn betweei modifications to present farming systems and entirely new systems of production Improved agronomy with moderate levels of inputs and ultimately introducing new varieties for these improved systems would be in the first category (and see Chapter V for concrete examples) However many of the poorer more marginal environments in the WASAT ultimately will need to gradually withdraw from crop production and move into grazing systems or forestry Crop farming in the WASAT migrated further north after the high rainfall period of the fifties As yield increases are attained in those regions of rainfed aiculture with more potential and in the river valleys and irrigated areas some present crop areas can be returned to more extensive agricultural systems Farming systems research will need to make some decisions about the regions with the most agricultural potential For those truly marginal regions more comprehensive systems changes may be necessary than are customarily evaluated in farming systems research
r-tional policy factors and national agricultural development planshyning cannot be ignored in FSR Many of these macro factors and evolving changes need to be explicitly incorporated into the analysis of which technologies and regions are appropriate for evaluation Nevertheless it is recommended that modeling concentrate on the farm level Without much better micro data and analysis than is presently available in most developshying countries extending farm models to sector analysis seems to be only a training device for economists rather than a useful exercise to enlighten agricultural development planners As the micro-modeling foundation is improved in the next five to ten years the agricultural sector models will be able to give a more useful input into agricultural policy formulation in the WASAT countries
Which agencies should undertake the on-farm testing
FSR presently takes five to ten percent of the budgets of several IARCs (Simmonds 1984 pp 67 68) and the IARCs have generally taken a leadership role in field application of on-farm testing The long-run frequently stated objective of the IARCs is to turn this activity over to the national agricultural research systems (NARC) The rationale is that the on-farm trials give very location-specific results The IARCs can develop methodologies and demonstrate the utilization of new research activities to the NARCs but ultimately larger numbers of on-farm trials in many regions will need to be undertaken in developing countries to evaluate the diverse technologies being produced in the IARCs and NARCs Not only does the scale of this testing make it infeasible for the IARCs to undertake all of it themselves but also much of the testing will be outside the commodity mandates of the individual IARCs
24
The institutional placement of on-farm testing depends upon the relative importance of the two clienteles for the products of the research at a given stage of technology development These two potential clienteles are the extension seryjce and the agricultural researchers On-farm trials which are successful give important information to the extension service and to those public officials involved with agricultural policy On-farm trials which are not successful give feedback on farm-level problems with the technologies to researchers at the experiment stations in both the national and international centers
If the primary emphasis of the on-farm trials needs to be on feedshyback then there are two problems with the present location of most farming systems research in the IARCs First several of the centers put the principal emphasis of their on-farm trials on providing information for the NARCs and the extension services (Simmonds 1985 pp 92-97) Presently there is less concern with feedback from the on-farm trials to IARC reshysearchers on the relevance and problems of the technologies they are developing Organizationally it appears to be very difficult for a divishysion of one institution to ierve for very long as an effective critic of its own activities
Secondly most of the IARCs Pre crop-breeding institutions including CIMMYT IRRI CIAT ICRISAT ICARDA and IITA Two of these centers CIMMYT and IRRI have been very successful in producing new varieties for those environments with adequate assured water availability and moderate to high levels of input utilization However in most of the harsher environments including the WASAT where these conditions are not met improvements in agronomy to attain moderate purchased input levels may need to precede the introduction of new varieties On-farm testing undertaken or financed by the IARCs tends to concentrate on the varietal effect since that is their mandate In these harsher environments institutions other than the IARCs (or even the NARCs which receive IARC assistance of new germ plasm) may need to do the on-farm testing
This on-farm testing in harsher climatic regions such as the WASAT would concentrate first on identifying agronomic improvements ie the combination of measures to improve water retention and soil fertility At a later stage the IARCs and NARCs could develop new varieties for these improved (but not high input) production systems The main points here are that at least in the WASAT stage of agricultural development the princishypal focus of on-farm testing will need to be on feedback to the research station and the principal focus of research on agronomic improvements
On-farm testing can be considered either as the last stage of the agricultural research process befcre passing the innovation on to the Extension Service or the first stage of the Extension process before demonstration trials and active diffusion measures Clearly there needs to be interaction between the NARC and the Extension Service consisting of the regular exchange of information and even planning of the on-farm trials If there is sufficient exchange of information and collaboration
25
in on-farm trial design the institutional location of these trialswill be less important
In summary on-farm trials will need to be undertaken by most agencies involved in agricultural experimentation in the WASAT Communication barriErs are sufficiently large between scientists and farmers that this type of intermediate activity is expected to be necessary for several decades since the IARCs NARCs and other agencies apparently need this source of feedback on the performance of their technologies Since we have been stressing the importance of feedback all through this chapter we argue that the on-farm trials should be located in the research rather than the extension entity so that feedback results are more readily acceptable at the experiment station
As on-farm trials move into the NARCs and are financed by their own internal financial resources lower ccst methods for conducting on-farm trials must be sought These trials tend to be very intensive in their use of highly qualified scientific manpower for planning and evaluation Their execution requires good logistic support and training for a large number of field workers It would appear that in the WASAT external financing and external scientific manpower will be necessary for some time to continue high levels of on-farm testing
Conclusions
Defining farmers constraints to increasing agricultural production is a complicated task best illustrated by example In the conclusions to this report (Chapter VI) we return to this problem to illustrate the conshytribution of the Purdue farming systems project to constraint identification in the WASAT Meanwhile the survey process can be divided into an initial or baseline study which describes the farmers production and household systems and supplementary or diagnostic surveys which invesshytigate particular research areas as they arise For the baseline study the in-depth village-household production and consumption analyses freshyquently undertaken by anthropologists and sociologists seem especially relevant to an understanding of the farming systems in the areas specifishycally targeted for further research activity during the on-farm stage of FSR Supplementary diagnostic 3urveys can then be undertaken in response to specific objectives of th farm-level work especially the on-farm testing of new technclogies These will often be within the disciplinary area of agricultural economists In the modeling stage of the evaluation process there will frequently be a need for supplementary farm business or household information
One primary recommendation here is that the on-farm testing phase of the FSR begin in the first production season Agricultural scientists will generally have a series of recommendations of component parts for farm testing Putting these individual factors together into technology packages and testing them under farmers conditions will help to further develop their understanding of farmers objectives and systems The
26
agricultural scientists will generally have much more interest in field experiments than in the diagnostic surveys In this initial stage of onshyfarm testing the principal direction of information flow will be feedback to the researchers as the packages are expected to have either technical or economic prulblems impeding their acceptance by farmers
Multi-disciplinary collaboration especially between the agricultural scientists and economists is essential for the on-farm testing Agriculshytural scientists know well the mechanics of the testing process Econoshymists understand the farmers objectives Both need to collaborate to understand the interactions and complexities of farmers systems of proshyduction There should be collaboration in research design to avoid replishycating experiment station trials and to obtain the necessary data for economic analysis
On the farm the treatments are generally different systems of production rather than individual factors The analysis proceeds from a statistical analysis of the significance of yield differences to economic concerns with profitability and the fit into the farmers systems of proshyduction The comparison between treatments analyzes the potential benefits to the farmers from new technology adoption since the control is a proxy for the farmers system of production The simplest economic analysis is the evaluation of profitability using partial budgets However this type of analysis is not as simple as it appears because of price variation and the difficulty of attiibutinrg prices to some production factors Generally an attempt is made to overcome these budgeting problems with sensitivity analysis
The final step in the evaluation is to consider the potential fit of the activity irto the farmers systems of production with mathematical proshygramming This whole f=crm analysis simulates the farmers decision-making process by including information on all present and potential activities using the data on on-farm and off-farm resource availabilities New sysshytems of production that pass through all three stages of this evaluation are expected to be adopted by farmers There is some adoption evidence from both Colombia and Burkina Faso supporting the above assertion
In the harsh envirarunent of the WASAT given the very low utilization of purchased inputs at present marginal agronomic changes such as density timing or even varietal change are expected to have little or even negashytive impact Larger systems changes involving technologies which simultaneously augment water conservation and soil fertility are hypothesized as necessary in order to raise yields sufficiently so that these new systems not only yield more than farmers practices on their own fields but also are profitable and fit into farmers production systems
National economic and agricultural policies can have a large impact on technology evaluation and even the planning of FSR Policymakers need to be concerned with creating an environment in which farmers can make money from adopting new technologies In the short run in the WASAT the
27
elimination of input subsidies especially if ceilings are retained for product prices will make it more difficult for farmers to profit from new technology adoption By evaluating the impact of different agricultural and economic policies on the farm-level profitability and potential adopshytion of new technologies the FSR program may be able to help influence governmental policy formation
Another impact of national policy is on agricultural development planning Frequently FSR programs are designed for marginal agricultural areas Alternatives to developing technologies for these regions may be public health investments in river valleys and yield-improving strategies in the dryland regions with better agricultural resources If yields can be sufficiently improved for the higher resource regions some shifting into livestock or even forestry may be appropriate land-use decision for the more marginal agricultural areas For these types of land-use changes government would need to finance the human resettlement costs Change in agricultural activities of this magnitude are not generally included in FSR Hence Simmonds (1984 p 121) developed a new term for it New Farming Systems Develonment (NFSD)
In the WASAT a prerequisite to new variety development appears to be the simultaneous utilization of moderate input levels to improve water retention and soil fertility Once these agronomic improvements are in place new variety introduction is expected to have more potential for sucshycess than at the present time Some of the on-farm trials in the WASAT may need to be underjgken by agencies whose principal activity is not new variety development
The on-farm testing can be either the final step in the research proshycess of the NARC IARC or other research institution or the fi t step in the Extension Service before demonstration trials or other disL mination activities The institutional location should depend upon whether the prishymary product is feedback on technology improvement to experiment station researchers or feedforward of technologies to be disseminated by the Extension Service Since the process of feedback to researchers is conshysidered to be the most important objective of on-farm testing in the early stages of agricultural technology development in the WASAT our institushytional preference for the location of these trials is with the national agricultural research centers (NARCs) rather than the national extension service The scientists in the on-farm trials will know how to convince the scientists on the experiment station of the validity of their results Some of them may even fulfill algual role working on both the experiment station and the on-farm trials As more technology is validated in the on-farm trials and can move on to the Extension Service the returns to investments in the institutional ties between the NARCs and the Extension Service will be increased
28
FOOTNOTES
This type of infrmation flow is customarily referred to as feedback
Farming Systems and other research programs also attempt to provideinformation on new technologies to farmers and extension agents Anyagricultural research program ult imately needs to have an impact on the well-being of farmers in order to survive Since the economic imporshytance of this directional flow of information to farmers is obvious we consider it to be more importlant to stress here the importance of the feedback to researchers so that they are more effective in doing their job ie producing new technologies
2 Dillon (1976 pp 6-7) contrasts philosophic differences of scientific
investigation into two approaches Reduc t ionism implied reducingphenomena to their more basic (and hopefully independent) parts analyzshying these parts as independent entities to explain their behavior and then aggregating these explanations as an explanation of the phenomenon under study Reductionism abetted and fostered the proliferation of specialized deafness and tunnel vision in form of independentthe scienshytific disciplines
Since the fifties reductionism has been increasingly seen as an inadequate basis for science to either understand or to manipulate and control its environment An alternative approach is the systems or holistic approach This is a multi-disciplinary approach in which explanation then proceeds in terms of the role or function of the part in the Larger system(s)
Clearly heshe will be exposed to all the other types of constraints but disciplinary blinders often exist especially for those involved in their own research programs
4 A recent international agricultural research center meeting for the planniig of on-farm trials in Africa concluded that the initial descripshytion and diagnostic activity of the FSR should be rapidly implemented so that a crop season for experimentation is not lost (unpublished summaryof meeting notes ILRAD Oct 1984) Diagnosticsurvey activities and farm-level experimentation can continue simultaneously In fact the farm-level experimentation will require additional diagnosticsurvey activities to evaluate the Economic potential of the new technology
The diagnostic surveys of economists have not been nearly as useful for a comprehensive understanding of the farming and household systems as those of the anthropologists Howev-r the utility of the economist on multi-disciplinary teams to undertake and evaluate on-farm trials has been repeatedly demonstrated and is now widely if not universally acshycepted (Simmonds 1984 pp 24 71-75 125) The other social scienshytists have not yet demonstrated their capacity to work on these types of teams They appear to be in the position of defining their role a position similar to that of the economists about a decade earlier
29
6 Generally soil fertility is higher on the experiment station and the
incidence of anddiseases insects is greater than on the surrounding farms due to the repeated intensive cultivation of the same crops Howshyever on the experiment station the high levels of non-treatment inputs such as agricultural chemicals can reduce the levels of insects disshyeases and weeds to levels even lower than on the farmers fields For farmers these levels of chemical control are often not profitable
Occasionally the impact of one or two components will be estimated as with fertilization and tied ridges (a water-conservation technique) alone and in combination in the Burkina Faso FSU program
8 If the weeding is not done opportunely there can often be a yield
decline Moreover all farms in a given region will be performing these types of operations at approximately the same time Hence it will be very difficult for farmers to hire temporary labor away from their famshyily operations So the implicit value or productivity of the family labor becomes very high in these particular tasks at certain critical times
9 A more comprehensive agricultural policy analysis would include the macro effect of new technology introduction on prices as is done in agriculture sector models But because so many other structural changes are occurring at the same time this price effect is not considered to be very important at least in the initial stages of technology development
10 Those advocating these types of planting density date or other culshy
tural system change generally are expecting yield increases of only 10 to 20 This type of yield increase is very difficult for the farmer to see and could easily disappear as on-farm trials change from researcher to farmer management New agronomic system changes are expected to take time for farmers to master if a series of component part changes are implied andor timeliness of the relevant operations is also important Hence the yield differences of these minimal changes even if they truly exist will often disappear in the learning-by-doing effect
11 Once farmers are utilizing moderate purchased input levels it will be
very important to systematically evaluate the im-pact of these marginal changes especially new varieties and more intensive cropping systems
12 By removing all input subsidies and other price distortions or intervenshy
tions governments and international agencies can calculate the real resource cost of various alternative policies and ascertain their comshyparative advantage in international production This analysis assumes that the re are no differences between private and public benefits or between private and social costs Hence there are no externalities in the system
30
Removing these price and cost distortions will facilitate economic calculations and in the long run welfare gains are expected In the short run the elimination of input subsidies is expected to sharply slow down the agricultural developmenc process and to put upward presshysure on agricultural product prices and the demand for agricultural import substitutes Developed country exporters of agricultural proshyducts would be the principal beneficiaries of higher agricultural import levels in the developing countries
13 In the river valleys and irrigated regions human health constraints may be the principal factor limiting agricultural development River blindshyness has been a serious problem in many of the Burkina Faso river valshyleys An erradiation program has now at least temporarily eliminated this problem In the irrigation projects the widespread incidence of bilharzia substantially reduces labor productivity
14 By successful we mean passing the three evaluation criteria recommended
in Figure 5 Clearly agricultural scientists will also be interested in those technologies being passed on to the Extension Service for diffusion We are stressing here their interest in feedback in order to resolve those problems in their technologies which came to their attenshytion because of the results of the on-farm trials
15 We would expect that those agencies principally concerned with varietal
development would emphasize varietal testing in their on-farm trials The on-farm trials are important activities for institutions primarily concerned with breeding Nevertheless a third party such as a univershysity may be necessary in order to carry out the farm trials without preconceived notions which would emphasize certain varieties or other types of technology
16 The differences are so great between the experiment station and the
farm-level definitions of constraints and relevant research problems that one of the field agronomists from this project even proposed that all agricultural scientists working on the experiment stations in the WASAT should have some involvement with on-farm trials
CHAPTER IV
PRODUCTION CONSTRAINTS OF THE WASAT FARMING SYSTEMS
The WASAT is not as well endowed with a climate or soil resource base as most of the populated areas of the world This chapter elaborates on the major physical and resource endowment constraints of the WASAT and describes cropping patterns farmers goals and objectives and modern input use
Climate
The WASAT region is a transition zone betwien the northern desert and the humid tropics of the south There are three distinct seasons warm and dry from November to March hot and dry during March through May and hot and wet from May to October Harmattan conditions (hot dry dustshyladen winds) exist during the November to March period
Rainfall in the May to October agricultural season over the entire WASAT ranges from 200 mm in the north to 1300 mm in the south with potenshytial evapotranspiration ranging between 2200 mm in the north to 1600 mm in the south (Nicou and Charreau 1985) Since the mid-sixties annual rainshyfall has averaged 100 to 150 mm below the long-term average within each isohyet (Dancette 1977) Thus the isohyet levels delineating the climatic zones in Figure 1 would be at lower levels if more recent rainfall data were used
Rainfall is extremely variable over time and over space Nicholson (1982) states that in normal rainfall years 40 to 50 of individual weather stations experience below-normal rainfall Rainfall vaiiabiltty at individual stations ranges from 15 of the long-term average in the south to 50 in the north (Nicholson 1982) Also the number of below-normal years tend to exceed the number of wet years The long-term average rainshyfall is inflated by a few extremely wet years (Nicholson 1982) The area also has a long history of intermittent droughts and wet spells
Soil Fertility and Water Retention
Soils in the WASAT are predominantly sandy red alfisols low in organic matter and exchangeable cations with a soil texture high in sand (60-95) anO low in silt and clay content (Matlon 1985 Nicou and Charreau 1985) The soils tend to be deficient in phosphorous and nitroshygen Long fallow periods can restore soil fertility but phosphorous and nitrogen deficiency symptoms have been observed shortly after the land is put into cultivation (IFDC 1985) The phosphorous sorption capacity of WASAT soils vary widely but is generally low decreasing the agronomiceffectiveness of phosphate fertilizers (IFDC 1985) Nitrogen can be quickly exhausted in these fragile poorly buffered soils (IFDC 1985) The soils contain only weak aggregates and in many regions the soil surface
32
dries after a rain and forms a crust which restrict water infiltration and aeration (Kowal and Kassam 1978) These soil properties combined with high intensity rainfall lead to water retention and erosion problems In the dry season the soils harden making pre-plant cultivation difficult and almost impossible by traditional methods until there is a major rain (Kowal and Kassam 1978)
The quality of the land in terms of fertility and organic matter conshytent varies greatly in tarmers fields Land quality and soil water retenshytion are highly correlated with topography and distance from the compound area around the living quarters The quality and water retention ability of the soil deteriorates as one moves farther up the toposequence and away from the compound area thus requiring different cropping and management strategies by the farmer (Stoop et al 1982)
Although more productive vertisols and hydromorphic soils are found along river valleys the presence of Onchoceriasis (river blindness) in many of the river valleys has made them uninhabitable in the past
Labor Availability
Labor shortages exist in the critical planting and weeding periods (FSUSAFGRAD 1983) Planting of millet and sorghum begins with the first significant rains in May or June This is followed by rice groundnut and maize planting in combination with the sorghum and millet first weeding activities Depending on the level and distribution of rainfall fields may require resowing transplanting andor thinning Usually a second and at times a third weeding will follow Most of the plantingfirst weeding period occurs over a six-week time period with the household supshyplying the labor
When farmers were asked why they did not hire more labor for first weeding their reply was Because there is no one to hire then everyone is busy with their own weeding (FSUSAFCRAD 1983) Households do not genershyally hire labor from other households because cash and food reserves at this time of year are at their lowest and not sufficient to pay laborers a wage rate (or its equiyalent in food) equal to the opportunity cost of working their own land Also few laborers are in the labor market at this time because households have control of their family labor and utilize it for their own production needs (Kowal amp Kassam 1978)
Cropping Patterns
Cereal production is the dominant agricultural activity in the WASAT (Kowal and Kassam 1978) Regional cropping patterns in the WASAT differ-shythe most notable difference being the increasing dominance of millet over sorghum maize and root crops as soil fertility and rainfall decrease from south to north About 80 of the cropped area in the WASAT is intershycropped--cerealcereal and cereallegume are the most common (Fussell and Serafini 1985 Sawadogo et al 1985) Cowpeas are usually intercropped
33
with millet or sorghum at low densities of 1000 to 8000 plants per hectare The main cash crops in the south include cotton groundnuts and bambara nuts Small amounts of rice are grown in the bottom lands and irrigated areas
At the farm level land quality the water retention ability of the soil and labor availability are the dominant factors in farmers cropping decisions (Lang et al 1983) The staple crops of maize sorghum and millet receive the highest priority of land and labor resources Drought tolerance of the crops are matched with soil fertility and toposequence Maize which is less tolerant to drought and low soil fertility than either sorghum or millet is planted near the villagle compound on the more-fertile compound field This field ranging in size from 1 to 2 ha is used as a dump for night soil animal manure stubble and other organic material Sorghum is planted on the lower areas where there is slightly more water accumulation and where the soils are more fertile than the poorer soils further up the toposequence (Stoop et al 1982) The more abundant but poorer land is planted to millet which has the most tolerance to drought and low soil fertility Farmers say that in the worst rainfall years some millet can always be harvested
Millet and sorghum can be found growing in the next higher soil fershytility gradient than is dictated by their drought tolerance ability but maize and sorghum are rarely grown on a lower soil fertility gradient Farmers say that white sorghum is preferred because it stores twice as long as millet however more sorghum is not sown because of limited good qualshyity land and because sorghum is more vulnerable to parasites such as striga Maize and sorghum planting is thus constrained by the availability of high quality land whereas the millet area is constrained by the labor supply in the plantingfirst weeding period
In the old settlement areas cereal yields are declining in response to lower soil fertility caused by the decrease in the fallow period and lower average rainfall over the last decade (Lang et al 1984) As the soil fertility declines sorghum is being replaced by millet which yields better on the poorer soils Farmers in the village of Nedogo say that much more sorghum was planted in the village when they were young than is planted now (Ames 1986)
Farmer Goals and Objectives
Norman (1982) states that the most important differences among farming systems come from the constraints peculiar to the region and not from difshyferences in farmer aspirations (which include higher incomes effort reducshytion and risk avoidance) Farmers in older settlement areas have conshystraints and endowments which differ from those of farmers in frontier villages Farmers in the older settlement areas of Burkina where access to land is limited and soil fertility low indicated uniformly that their only goal was subsistence (FSUSAFGRAD 1983) This means harvesting enough sorghum and millet in November to feed their families until the beginning
34
of the August maize harvest that provides food during the hungry period-shythe period between ending cereal stocks and the new harvest (FSUSAFGRAD 1983) When asked to specify other goals and objectives the first priorshyity was the payment of a head tax and if resources remained meetingurgent needs which were listed as medical Other priorities were to reward the family with clothes for their work during the cropping season and to greet their in-laws or arrange marriages (FSUSAFGTAD 1983)
On the frontier where access to fallow land is notl limited half of the farmers gave subsistence oriented responses that were similar to the responses given in the older settlement areas However half of the farmshyers responded that We were once concerned only with survival but now we also think of accumulating wealth When asked What is wealth they replied cattle (FSUSAFGRAD 1983)
The survey results indicated that although farmers in the WASAT in general are subsistence oriented the goals and objectives of farmers difshyfer given different constraints This is evidenced by the total subsisshytence orientation of the sample of farmers in the old settlement villages versus the orientation of those farmers in the frontier village who indishycated wealth accumulation as one of their main goals Higher soil fertilshyity and access to land at the frontier has permitted farmers to look beyond subsistence goals This appears to demonstrate that if through technologshyical introduction some of the constraints to increasing yield in the WASAT can be alleviated the aspirations of farmers will allow technology adopshytion to occur (at some level of profit effort and risk)
Modern Input Use
Except for tuie higher rainfall regions of the Sudano-Guinean region and some river valleys credit and modern inputs such as fertilizer pestishycides herbicides and improved varieties are not widely used in the WASAT Even in these regions of higher rainfall purchased input utilization is concentrated on the export crops cotton and groundnuts FAO fertilizer statistics indicate that NPK use in eight Sahelian countries averaged less than 3 kgha as compared to 73 kgha in Asia (Matlon 1985) Less than 15 of farmers use animal traction in the WASAT (Matlon and Spencer 1985) Animal traction is used for shallow land preparation plowing and shallow weeding but utilization rates are low and farmers seldom are equipped to do more than one mechanized operation (Jaeger 1985)
Neither input nor product marketing infrastructure nor a research and extension service similar to that developed for cash crops in the WASAT pre-independence era (pre-1960) was ever developed for food crops In the Colonial period food requirements were met by the subsistence-oriented agricultural system There was little export demand for food crops such as sorghum and millet (World Bank 1985) Since the late 1960s however rapid population growth and lower food crop yields due to lower rainfall levels and declining soil fertility have substantially increased food crop
35
demand to the point where food security is not assured in most regions of the WASAT Expanding cereal imports have accompanied this trend
Even with the population pressure and increased food demand since independence an input and product marketing infrastructure for food crops has not developed Poor fertility 3oils erratic rainfall distribution and low soil water retention have led to highly variable between-year yield responses to many land-substituting inputs For example the response of fertilizer is highly dependent upon the availability of sufficient water at several critical periods Thus fertilizer utilization can be very risky Similarly iroved varieties have not dcne well under traditional manageshyment conditions (Matlon 1985)
Labor-saving animal traction technology is not widely used in the WASAT in spite of potentially high ratc of return Present internal rates of return of 10 in old settlement areas (Nedogo) and 20 to 30 at the frontier (Diapangou) have been estimated but higher rates of return could be achieved with higher utilization rates principally through expansion of the number of mechanized agricultural operations (Jaeger 1985) Most animal traction farms observed in Burkina Faso mechanized either the land preparation or the cultivation operations but not both Problems of obtaining high utilization rates stein from small size farms inapproprishyate andor incomplete set of implements poor animal health and nucrition and poor management (Jaeger and Sanders 1985) Higher utilization rates and the full benefit of mechanization are not obtained by first-time animal traction users because learning curves can be as long as five years (Jaeger and Sanders 1985) Few animal traction extension programs exist which train farmers and draft animals and thus facilitate animal traction usage
In summary low soil fertility and low soil water retention low variable and unpredictable rainfall in combination with a high evapotransshypiration rate labor shortages in the critical planting and weeding periods and the limited access to land in old settlement areas are the major physical and resource endowment constraints to increased cereal yields in most of the WASAT (Matlon 1985 Nagy et al 1985 Lang et al 1984) The physical environment makes new technology adoption in the WASAT risky The national research institutions extension and input and product marketing infrastructures to support new technology adoption and dissemination are at a low level Thus farming systems on the frontier continue to be bush-fallow systems that rely on available land and family labor inputs with little utilization of purchased inputs Farming systems in the older settled area have been shifting to more millet production and yields have declined and stabilized at low levels
Despite the current situation in the WASAT recent research findings suggest that a Malthusian perspective can be iverted Several on-farm evaluated technologies have been shown to be both agronomically and economshyically feasible in increasing cereal production and others have promise for the future A review of the proposed technologies and farm management practices for the WASAT is the subject of the next chapter
36
Footnotes
Whole farm modeling results indicate opportunity costs of labor in the
last two weeks of the plantingfirst weeding period to be 365 and 181 FGFAhr respectively for manual tillage farmers which is in contrast to the wage rate of 30 to 50 FCFAhr (Roth et al 1986)
CHAPTER V
TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT TO INCREASE CEREAL PRODUCTION IN THE WASAT
Introduction
This chapter reviews the technologies and farm management techniques that have been proposed for alleviating the production constraints in the WASAT This review uses agronomic and socio-economic data and information frGn the Purdue FSU piogram supplemented by other research from the area The FSU program conducted research in three climatic zones with village research sites in the southern portion of the Sahelo-Sudanian zone in the Sudanian zone and in the northern portion of the Sudano-Guinean climatic zone (Figure 2) Thus FSU findings and the review of most of the techshynolog0ies and recommendations reflect this orientation
As each technology is discussed it is evaluated as to the feasibility of its utilization by farmers within the short run (0 to 5 years) the intermediate run (5 to 15 years) and the long run The criteria used in the evaluation attempt to follow the strategy used by farmers in their adoption process (see Figure 5 in Chapter III and Table 1 in this chapter)
Socio-economic research suggests that farmers do not necessarily adopt technologies as a package but rather adopt single technologies or clusters of technologies en route to total package adoption (Byerlee and Hesse de Polanco 1986 Mann 1978) This is in spite of the fact that the largest impact on yields comes about when various methods (technologies) are used in combinition or as a package The farmers strategy seems to be to adopt the technologies of the package sequentially based on availability technical viability in the field economic profitability and risk conshysiderations and the resource endowment fit of the technology (ie labor and land constraints) within the farming system The technologies within the package that best exhibit the above attributes will be selected first by the farmer Other technologies will be added only after the farmer has had positive experience with the already adopted technologies and when the above attribute requirements are again met Thus while farmers can be presented with a package of technologies there seems to be an agronomically and economically logical sequence by which technological adoption will occur Information on the likely adoption pattern sequence of proposed technologies is important for focusing research extension and government programs
In this chapter available agronomic technical and socio-economic research findings are used to review and sequence the proposed technologies and farm management practices for the WASAT For example research findings from on-station and on-farm research trials are used to assess technical viablity in the field Economic budget analysis and benefit-cost
38
Table 1 Present technical and economic feasibility and time frame of proposed technologies and farm management practices for the WASAT
Technologies Present Ayronomic and Technical Feasibility Present and Farm Mgmt On-Station On-Farm Economic
Practices Research Research Feasibility Comments
Available technologies for the short run
Tied ridging (manual) +++ Very labor intensive Diguettesdikes 3 Require materials (ie rocks) Complex fertilizer ++ Risk of losing cash outlayAnimal traction 3 ++ Preconditions (see text) Mechanical ridge tier +++ ++ Requires animal traction
Potential technologies for the intermediate run Rock phosphate + - Solubility amp application problems Improved varieties ++ + - Requires upgrading of physical
environment
Potential technologies for the long run Manurecomposting +++ ++ Small and finite supply Mulch +++ ++ Small and finite supply Plowinggreen manuring ++ ++ - Poor draft animal health
Herbicides ++ ++ - Further research requiredBiol nitrogen fixation + - Further research requir Crop associations - intensification ++ + - Requires upgrading of physical - alley cropping ++ + - environment and improved
varieties Labor and management
intensive
++ High degree of feasibility--research supports a very good agronomic response or is technically very
feasible ++ Feasible--good agronomic response or technically feasible + Limited feasibility--agronomic results often inconsistent - Not feasible--little evidence to support a good agronomic response or technical feasibility
HaHighly profitable at present
= Profitable at present = Not always profitable at pres(ent
- NHot economically feasible at present
3 Not researched at the on-station level
4 Can be feasible for sole cropping but problems with mixture of broad and slender leaf plants in crop associations
39
ratios are used to determine economic profitability Research irial results and the incidence of cash outlay loss are used to assess risk Whole farm modeling and labor data analysis is used to indicate the fit of the technolshyogy within the farming systems Farmers views and comments are also incorporated
Once the technologies and farm management practices are reviewed and sequenced for either the short intermediate or long run the discussion in this chapter turns to identifying available technologies--first for the present cereal-based farming systems and second for a future more intenshysified farming system The technologies available for use in the present farming systems are then further sequenced on a recommendation domain basis
Proposed Technologies for the WASAT
The research that has been carried out in the WASAT aimed at overcomshying climatological and physical constraints and labor endowment shortages is discussed under the hicadings 1) soil fertilitywater retention techshynologies 2) labor-saving technologies 3) improved varietal research and 4) crop associations Table 1 presents a summary of the technical and ecoshynomic feasibility evaluation and a time frame for the availability of the proposed technologies and farm management practices
1) Soil FertilityWater Retention Technologies
Tied Ridges Tied ridging technology was introduced in the 1950s in West Africa (Dagg and Macartney 1968) On-station and on-farm research has shown that tied ridges significantly increase yields (Nicou and Charreau 1985 Dugue 1985 Rodriguez 1982 Ohm et al 1985a and 1985b) (see Photograph 5 page 41) FSU on farm researcher-managed (TR constructed both at and one month after planting) and farmer-managed trials (TR conshystructed 4-6 weeks after planting) have shown significant yield increases and economic returns to the additional labor required for TR on maize sorghum (Table 2 column 2) and millet (FSU 1983 Annual Report 1983 Lang et al 1984 and Ohm et al 1985a and 1985b) Manual tying of ridges is very labor intensive The manual tying of ridges constructed with animal traction requires at least 40 man hoursha (with very efficient laborers) and on average 75 man hoursha whereas constructing TR completely by hand requires at least 100 hoursha (Ohm et al 1985b) (see Photograph 6 page 41)
PJshy
-no pre-plant soil itillage no fertilization Soil scarification with animal traction~Woman planting millet by traditional manual method
-
Left fertilization right no fertilization foreground droughty area in field shy a typical view in the Central Manual construction of tiec oges in researcher-managed trial - mulch applied to somePlateau plots
D II
A
FSU researcher managed trials near Poedogo Water entrapment in depressions resulting from tied ridgesa No fertilization construction of tied ridges at plantingb No fertilization construction of tied ridges one month after plantingc No fertilization without tied ridges d Fertilization and tied ridges
Ad T7 Z
Farmer-managed plots - Left traditional method no fertilization and no tied ridging right fertilization Farmer-managed trials - Left foreground mulch applied no fertilization nor construciion of tied ridgesand tied ridging Right foreground fertilization and contruction of tied ridges one month after planting Background farmshyers traditionally managed field
43
Construction of tied ridges with mechanical ridge tier FSU researcher managed trial Background maize intershycropped with cowpeas fertilized with construction of tiedridges at planting Foreground maize intercropped with cowshypeas no fertilization nor construction of tied ridges
43 - a
Table 2 Economic analysis of farmer-managed trials of sorghum with fertilizer and tied ridges Nedogo and Diapangou 1983 and 1984
1 Treatments
C TR F TRF Nedogo 1984 Manual Traction
Grain Yield kgha 2 157 416 431 652
Yield Gain Above Control kgha - 259 274 495
Gain in Net Revenue FCFAha 3 - 23828 13275 33607
Returnhr of Additional Labor FCFA4 238 140 172- Farmers Whio Would Have Lost Cash - 0 27 9
1aedogo 1983 Manual Traction Grain Yield kgha 430 484 547 851 Yield Gain Above Control kgha - 54 117 421 Gain in Net Revenue FCFAha - 3510 -2285 17475 Returnhr of Additional Labor FCFA - 35 - 90 Farmers Who Would Have Lost Cash - 0 66 0
Diapangou 1984 Donkey Traction Grain Yield kgha 498 688 849 1133 Yield Gain Above Control kgha - 190 351 635 Gain in Net Revenue FCFAha - 17480 20359 46487 Returnhr of Additional Labor FCFA - 233 214 273 Farmers Who Would Have Lost Cash shy 0 21 0
Diapangou 1983 Donkey Traction Grain Yield kgha 481 522 837 871 Yield Gain Above Control kgha - 71 356 390 Gain in Net Revenue FCFAha - 6532 20819 23947Returnhr of Additional Labor FCFA - 87 219 141 Farmers Who Would Have Lost Cash - 0 16 12
Source Ohm et al 19851) and Lang et al 1984 Similar results were obtained at three other sites in Burkina
1 C = Control (no tied ridges or fertilizer) TR = tied ridges constructed at second weeding F = fertilizer 100 kgha 14-23-15 applied in band 10-15 cm from row at first weeding plus 50 gla urea applied in pockets 10-15 cm from seed pockets at second weeding
2 The standard error and CV (in parentheses) starting with Nedogo 1984 and conshy
tinUing through to Diapangon 1983 are 75 (43) 121 (29) 46 (18) and 43 (22) respectively Net Revenue = yield gaiii x grain price (65 and 92 FCFAkg in 1983 and 1984) minus fertilizer cost (62 and 78 CFAkg for 14-23-15 and 60 and 66 FCFAkg for urea in 1983 and 1984--fertili C prices are subsidized 40 to 50) Includes interest rate charge for six months at rate of 15 1 US dollar = 381 FCFA in 1983 and 436 FCFA in 1984 Net Revenue + additional labor of tied ridging and fertilizer application Manual and donkey traction require 100 and 75 hours of additional laborha for tied ridging respectively Fertilizer application requires 95 additional hoursha
44
Tied ridge construction has the advantage that no cash outlay is reshyquired if family labor is utilized However a survey of technology adoption by farmers in FSU villages indicated that the number of farmers constructing tied ridges and the hectarage of tied ridge construction outshyside the trial plots were small--an average of 032 hectaresfarmer with the largest being 10 hectare (Ohm et a] 1985b) When questioned farmers indicated that thev would like to construct more TR but they did not have sufficient family Iabo I ir ing from an outside labor pool is limited at the time tied ridges mu be coumstructed because the active labor force of all households is fully occupied with work in their own fields Linear programming representative farm models (Table 3 column 2) also indicate that labor availab i i ty const rainos prevent the manual tying of animal traction constructed ridges from beilng ut ilized on the entire farm
Another limitation is that tied ridging does not work well on sandy soils because the ties tend to break down in heavy rain Nevertheless aim estimated 40 of the presently cultivated land in Burkina and 15 in Mali appears to be suitable for tied ridging This represents 12 million hecshytares (Burns 1985) Tied ridges have been shown to be both agronomically and economicaly feasih Ic as a technology applicable at the present time to increase cereal product ion in the WASAT However the labor constraint requires a search for labor- saving technoloies
I)iguettesdikes There are various water conservationerosion methods in addition to tied ridges that are or could be used in the WASAT The construction of diguettes although not as effective in retaining water as tied ridges is a water conservation method that has been investigated Diguettes are barriers 10 to 15 cm high mainly made of rocks and placed on field contour lines 10 to 50 meters apart The barriers are permeable ard slow rainfall runoff to allow for increased infiltration They have imshyproved water retention and signiicantly increased yields in the norther[ (Yatenga) region of Burkina (Wright 1985) This technology has the advarshytage that it can be constructed in off peak labor periods with family labor and is not as labor intensive as tied ridging However rocks (the prinshycipal material) or other material in some regions are not available to conshystruct the diguettes Economic analysis indicates that the returns in the first year alone are greater than the labor bill (at the going wage rate) of constructing the diguettes In Burkina Faso local government agencies have constructed large dikes and barriers to control water flow at the village level Although diguettes and other forms of water retention and control require further research thme large dikes and diguettes are technologies that could be used at present
Complex Themical Fertilizers Under on-station and on-farm conditions significant yield increases for maize sorghum and millet have been obtained using complex mineral fertilizers (Pieri 1985 Ohm et al 1985b FSU Annual Reports) Yield response to fertilizer is however highly variable between sites and years (Spencer 1985) Nevertheless some researchers sugsest that continuous cropping using chemical fertilizers is potentially possible in the WASAT (see Pier 1985 p 77 for a literature review
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
45
Table 3 Whole farm modeling analysis of tied ridging with donkey tracshytion Central Plateau Burkina Faso
Tied-Ridging Technology Traditional Tied with Machine Management Tied by Two One
Variable (donkey) Hand Passes Pass -------------------- hectares---------------------
Total Area Cultivated 55 56 56 55 Maize
Traditional 20 - - -With Tied Ridges 20 20 20
Red Sorghum Traditional 60 - - -With Tied Ridges 60 60 60
White Sorghum Traditional 80 51 With Tied Ridges 29 80 80
Millet Traditional 318 315 315 184 With Tied Ridges - 33 164
Peanuts 76 85 53 43
Total Cereals Production ---------------------- kgs------------------------Per Househol 2103 2436 2651 2737 Per Resident 150 174 189 196
Net Farm Income 3 000s FCFA-------------------Per Household 2153 2462 2535 2622 Per Worker 308 352 362 375
1 Labor times of 75 man hoursha for tying of the ridges by hand 20 man
hoursha to machine tie with two passes and 2 aan hours to machine tie with one pass Yield estimates in kgsha for traditional practices and the technical intervention of tied ridging are as follows maize (1090 to 1730) red sorghum (672 to 940) white sorghum (472 to 660) and milshylet (320 to 415) 1985 fertilizer and grain prices were used
2 Based on 14 residentshousehold Annualized cost of 4400 FCFA for tied-ridging machine subtracted in colshyumns 3 and 4 Based on 7 active workershousehold
46
and references) Decreases in yield and fertilizer efficiency however have been observed after two to five years of continuous cropping where organic matter has not been incorporated into the soil (Pieri 1985)
In Burkina Faso on-farm researcher-managed trials indicate that the response of maize yields to tertilizer on the relatively high fertilitycompound soils was not economically profitable (1982 FSU Annual Report 1983) On-farm farmer-managed trials indicated that fertilizer can be profitable when using fertilizer alone on sorghum (Table 2 column 3) There is however considerable risk for the farmer of losing the cash outshylay when fertilizer is used alone as demonstrated by the percentage of farmers who would have lost cash in Table 2 column 3 Both yield and profitability substantially inicrease however when tied ridges and fertilshyizer are used in combination as indicated in Table 2 column 4 Also as shown in column 4 the risk of losing the cash outlay from the purchase of fertilize substantially decreases when fertilizer and TR are used in comshybination Fertilizer in combination with TR for millet on millet land has also been shown to be profitable with only a modera e risk of farmers losshying the fertilizer cash outlay (Ohm et al 1985a)
A survey of four FSU villages in Burkina indicated a range of fertilshyizer use )n cereals from zero farmers in the sample of the northern village of Bangasse to 33 of the farmers in the southern village sample from Poedogo which has better land and higher rainfall In the more northern region fertilizer use is riskier due to lower and more erratic rainfall Average hectarage fertilized in the villages that used fertil zer ranged from 034 ha at Nedogo to 3 ha at Poedogo (Ohm et al 1985b) Although the use rate per hectare was not established field staff indicated it was substantially lower than the 100 kga of 14-23-15 fertilizer applied to most of the FSU trials in the villages
The evidence to date on fertilizer use in the WASAT suggests that comshyplex fertilizers are a technolegy that can be used at present but yields are highly variable and the incidence of fertilizer cash outlay loss by farmers is high unless combined with a water retention technique such as TR The risk of losing cash decreases in the higher soil fertility and higher rainfall areas Empirical evidence also suggests that fertilizer use or water retention techniques such as TR when used alone can be economshyically feasible but that when used together the profitability substanshytially increases Moreover the number of farmers losing cash decreases subFstantially as compared with the fertilizer only strategy
Indigenous Rock Phosphate The benefits of using indig ous rock phosphate deposits in the WASAT are potentially appealling in terms of logistcs transportation cost advantages and foreign exchange savings Workable deposits occur in Senegal Mali Niger Togo Benin Nigeria and Burkina Faso On-station and on-farm trials have however found the rock phosphate to have solubility problems (IFDC 1985 Pieri 1985) The comshybination of the low P release in a water-soluble form that is readily available for use by plants aid the low I-sorption capacity of the WASAT soils have resulted in poor agronomic performance from rock phosphate applications There is little or no potential for direct application of WASAT rock phosphate with the possible exception of the Mali (Tilemsi) and Niger (Tahoual) deposits (IFDC 1985)
47
Two methods are used to increase the agronomic effectiveness of rock phosphate One method is to highly granulate the rock and the other method is acidulation Even when highly granulated the agronomic effrectiveness is low and several years of consecutive applications are required before significant yield increases are observed (IFDC 1985 FSU Annual Reports) After several years of application benefit-cnst ratios were still lower than other sources of phosphorous (IFDC 1985)
Four years of FSU on-farm farmer-managed trials in Burkina Faso using highly granulated Burkina rock phosphate (100 kgha rock phosphate with 50 kgha urea applied each year on the same plots) also indicated low benefitshycost ratios Benefit-cost ratios of less than one with a 50 subsidized rock phosphate price were obtained (Unpublished FSU data) In the same experiment benefit-cost ratios of 13 were obtained from a rock phosphate tied ridging treatment but the benefit-cost ratio decreased to 069 when unsubsidized prices were used FSU cooperator farmers did not like using the rock phosphate due to its poor agronomic performance and application problems due to its highly granulated form
IFDC has developed two processes for the partial acidulation of rock phosphate Acidulation with sulfuric or phosphoric acid converts the calshycium phosphate into a more soluble form Research on the agronomic effecshytiveness of partially acidulated rock phosphate in the WASAT has given conshyflicting results (Batiano et al 1985) Inconsistent results were obtained by FSU with 50 acidulated Burkina rock phosphate in a one year on-farm researcher-managed trial with sorghum and millet (Ohm et al 1985a) The partially acidulated rock phosphate is also highly granulated giving rise to farmer application problems
Few economic studies of acidulated rock phosphate are available for the WASAT When compared with single superphosphate the relative economic performance of acidulated rock phosphate on millet in Niger is generally lower but is not consistent across sites or years (IFDC 1985)
To be agronomically and economically feasible the solubility problems of rock phosphate will have to be overcome The present effectiveness of acidulation requires further on-farm testing Once rock phosphate became agronomically and economically feasible fertilizer plants and distribution networks would require several years to develop A source of sulfuric or phosphoric acid at economically feasible prices is also required (Pieri 1985) Thus rock phosphate appears to be a technology most appropriate in the intermediate run after the technical problems of solubility and applishycation are resolved economically at the farm level
Animal Manure and Compost Manure and compost are already being used effectively on fields near the compound although application and composting techniques could be more efficient (Pieri 1985 Table 11) The principal constraint to the increased use of manuring and composting is their finite supply Few organic waste materials are left once the household and animal feed requirements are met Manure availability will increase only when animals are penned to make collection possible However cattle are grazed on fallow land away from the living quarters and the labor involved in conshyfined rearing of animals is too great Cattle are also entrusted to herdshyers because of feed shortages close to the village As fallow land
48
declines in the old settlement areas it will be increasingly difficult to support cattle near the village and in the area in general
While animal manure and composting are agronomically and economically feasible for use around the compound area at present they do not representfarm management practices that will substantially increase cereal producshytion in the WASAT in the short and intermediate run because of their finite supply Their potential will only be realized in the long run when the farming system evolves from the dominant cereal-based system to a more intensive cereal-foragecash crop system that is able to support more liveshystock near the village
Mulch Crop residue mulch can reduce rainfall runoff and increase water infiltration but sorghum amid millet stalks in raw or compost form mayadd little to soil fertility (Pieri 1985 p 91) As with manure the principal limiting factor of mulch is its finite supply--especially in the northern half of the WASAT The demand for its uses as animal feed fuel and construction materia] leaves most fields bare by planting time and even when it is not all used the prevalent custom is to burn it Moreover crop residues (3 to 5 Tha) are not sufficient by themselvEs to increase soil fertility and writer retention capacity appreciably In addition applications of mulch (10 Tha) can give rise to nitrogen deficiency which can only be overcome by composting or the addition of nitrogen (Pieri 1985)
Plowinggreen manuring Significant yield increases from on-station and n-farm research have been observed from deep ploughing and tillagepractices which change the structure of the soil allowing better root establishment and improved water infiltration and storage (Nicou and Charreau 1985 I)ugue 1985) Most tillage in the WASAT is done by shalshylow manual cultivation (85 of farmers) or by shallow animal traction cultivation Little pre-plant ploughing or tillage is done because of the need to plant soon after a rain (within 2 to 3 days) The soil is genershyally too hard and the animals too weak at this time of year for effective ploughing to take place before a major rain
Green manuring can also increase the fertility of the soil and add to its water retention capacity (Pieri 1985) However this practice also requires deep ploughing to incorporate the plants into the soil To be effective pre-plant and deep ploughing and green manure incorporation all require substantial draft power which can only be given by healthy well fed double ox teams This type of draft power will be available only in the long run when the farming systems can support high level-maintenance of the draft animals
2) Labor Saving Technologies
Animal Traction An estimated fifteen percent of farms in the WASAT use animal traction--mainly for transport shallow weeding or shallow land-preparation plowing (Matlon 1985) (see Photograph 2 page 40) Farmshyers in general use only one mechanized operation rather than using animal traction for all the agricultural activities of soil preparation plantingand weeding (Jaeger 1985) To date animal traction usage in the WASAT can be characterized as iand using (extensive) Some studies have reported
49
significant farm area expansion from animal traction usage Animal tracshytion can perform weeding 6 to 7 times faster than manual weeding (Jaeger and Sanders 1985) Increased yield effects have been reported in the literature (mainly from ploughing) but the yield effects are generally small (Binswanger 1978)
In spite of low animal traction adoption in the WASAT at present it is a technology that is feasible for use in the short run Animal traction can be made more economically attractive to farmers Present internal rates of return can be doubled and tripled by higher utilization rates (Jaeger 1985) Higher utilization rates can be achieved by increasing the number of mechanized operations In the past many animal traction proshygrams have failed in the WASAT because utilization rates were not suffishyciently high Returns to first time users of animal traction in the first years of operation are generally low because learning curves can be as long as five years and is a deterrent to first time users (Jaeger and Sanders 1985) First time users can obtain the full benefit of nechanizatior quicker through farmer and animal extension training and an improved market for trained draft animals
Mechanical Ridge Tier To respond to the labor constraint in conshystructing tied ridges the IITASAFGRAD Agronomy Program designed a protoshytype mechanical ridge tier (MRT) (Figure 6) for animal traction (Wright and Rodriguez 1985) (see Photographs 7 and 9 pages 41 42) With FSU and IITA SAFGRAD collaboration ihe MRT was field tested as part of Burkinas 1985 national farming systems program (Nagy et al 1986a) Yield levels compare favorably between ridges constructed with animal traction and tied manually and those ridges made with the MRT When the two pass method is used (first ridging and then using the MRT) the MRT substantially reduces the labor requirements from an average 75 man hoursha for the manual tyingof animal traction ridges to 20 man hoursha The MRT operation requires only 2 to 3 additional hours above ridging alone when ridging and tying with the MRT are done simultaneously (one pass) Donkeys must be strong and healthy for the one pass method Oxen which are mainly available on the frontier clearly have an advantage and can easily do both operations simultaneously
Linear programming representative farm models indicate that while available labor constrains the tying of ridges manually to 11 ha (Table 3 column 2) the MRT can tie 32 ha when using the one-pass method (Table 3 column 4) and is highly profitable The profitability is further increased with the addition of fertilizer (Table 4) although hectarage under tied ridges decreases to 09 for manual tying and to 30 with the MRT because labor is required for fertilizer application Budget analysis also indishycates the profitability of the MRT urder vaiious prices and goodbad year weather scenarios (Nagy et al 1986a)
50
10
9
3 Latch lever 8 30 cm ridger that allows soil to flow over the top
4 Rubber band (inner tube strip) 9 Handles of houe Manga (FAQ donkey weecer) 5 Latch adjuster (for correct angle and to 10 Bicycle cable to brake lever
compensate for wear in bearings shovels and latch)
Figure 6 The ITASAFGRAD mechanical ridge tier (donkey version)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
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Table 4 Whole farm modeling analysis of a tied ridging-fertilization technology combination with donkey traction Central Plateau Burkina Faso
Tied-Ridging Technology Traditional Tied with Machine Management Tied by Two One
Variable (donkey) Hand Passes Pass ------------------- hectares---------------------
Total Area Cultivated 55 56 57 56 Maize
Traditional 20 With Tied Ridges 20 15 15
Red Sorghum Traditional 60 With Tied Ridges 60 68 60
White Sorghum Traditional 80 70 With Tied Ridges 10 80 95
Millet Traditional 318 315 318 188 With Tied Ridges 05 127
Peanuts 76 86 79 71
Total Cereals Production -------------------- kgs Per Househol 2103 2604 2970 3354 Per Resident 10 186 212 240
Net Farm Income3 000s FCFA-------------------Per Household 2153 2532 2732 2964 Per Worker 308 362 390 423
ource Nagy et al 1985 Based un application of 100 kgha 14-23-15 fertilizer at planting and 50 kgha urea four weeks after planting (20 man hoursha labor requirement for each application) Labor times of 75 man hoursha for tying of the ridges by hand 20 man hoursha to machine tie with two passes and 2 man hoursha to machine tie in one pass Yield estimates in kgsha for trashyditional practices and the technological interventions of fertilization and tied ridges in combination are as follows maize - not fertilized (1090 to 1730) red sorghum (672 to 1236) white sorghum (472 to 913) and millet (320 to 660) 1985 fertilizer and grain prices were used Based on 14 residentshousehold
4 Annualized cost of 4400 FCFA for machine subtracted in columns 3 and 4 Based on 7 active workershousehold
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Information from farmer questionnaires and field staff indicates that the major problem with the MRT is its awkwardness However most farmers were able to operate the MRT fairly efficiently after 15 to 30 minute- in the field Several engineering features require redesigning but the overshyall consensus of the field trials is that the MRT or a machine similar to the MRT can be used at present not only as a labor-saving device but also as a yield-increasing technology
Herbicides Herbicides could be used to decrease the labor constraint in the peak-labor-demand plantingweeding period (Spencer 1985) At present acquiring herbicides in the WASAT is difficult and little research has been done to tailor herbicides to WASAT conditions Both broad leaf and slender leaf plants as well as various trees are grown in association in the same field and these are sensitive to different herbicides
Economic analysis in northern Nigeria (Ogungbile 1980) suggests that weeding either by animal traction or manually is more profitable than herbicides at present Herbicides will find an increasing role in the WASAT only when cropping intensities are increased to the point where they require more intensive weeding (Norman 1982) and when the opportunity cost of labor substantially increases (Ruthenberg 1980)
3) Improved Varietal Pesearch
Few improved varieties of food crops are used by farmers in the WASAT Significant yield increases for varietal improvement from on-station reshysearch have been observed but a large yield gap between on-station and onshyfarm yields exists especially for the staple crops of sorghum and millet Experimental results suggest that the cereal y6 eld gap is less for local than for improved cultivars (Matlon 1985) Yields from FSU on-farm trials in Burkina for improved maize red and white sorghum and cowpeas rarely exceeded the yields of local varieties of the traditional management treatments (FSU Annual Reports)
Analysis by ICRISAT of sorghum and millet cultivars indicate that the on-station selection procedures under a high management environment (high fertility tillage and water management) have resulted in elite cultivars being more management responsive than local varieties but at the same time inferior at lower management levels (Matlon 1985) This suggests that breeding objectives should include screening and selection procedures that can provide cultivars which also exploit moderate management levels and that there is a need to hasten the process of variety evaluation onto onshyfarm trials (Matlon 1985) With the current selection procedures the full impact from varietal development will only be felt in the WASAT when farmers utilize a higher degree of improved management practices--practices such as an MRT-fertilizer combination--which would not take place until the intermediate run Also even if change ocur in the present breeding objectives leading to the development of new varieties able to exploit moderate management levels these vayleties will only be available in the intermediate run (five to ten years)
4) Crop Associations
Experiment station studies of different crop associations have received increased attention in the WASAT over the past 15 years (Fussell
53
and Serafini 1985) Significant aggregate biological yields from intensishyfying cereal-cowpea associations have been obtained in research station trials (Fussell and Serafini 1985 Muleba1985) Increased legume densishyties however are normally accompanied by serious insect infestation probshylems requiring pesticide spraying The role that biological nitrogen fixashytion has played in obtaining the increased aggregate yields in cerealshylegume associations in the WASAT is yet to be determined (Fussell and Serifini 1985) Studies have shown however that under WASAT water stress and mineral deficiency conditions some legumes may contribute to nitrogen losses (Pieri 1985)
On-farm researcher-iianaged trials indicate that the most limiting facshytors in the performance of cereal-cowpea association intensification are soil moisture and fertility (Ohm et al 1985a) Under favorable condishytions of moisture and fertility it is profitable to increase cowpeadensity but under less favorable conditions the present practice of the farmers seems to be more dependable and profitable (Ohm et al 1985a)Under improved management (tied ridges fertilizer and pesticides) cowpeadensities somewhat higher than those currently used by farmers appear to be economically viable (Ohm et al 1985a) There are however instances where increased cowpea density has decreased sorghum yields (Matlon 1983)
Socio-economic studies indicate that farmers are primarily concerned with maintaining cereal yields and that modifications in cowpea densities and cultural practices that decrease cereal yield will not be adopted bythe farmer (Sawadogo et al 1985 Diehl and Sipkens 1985 Matlon 1983)Labor data analysis indicates that intensified cereal-cowpea associations substantially increase planting and weeding requirements (Matlon 1983)Depending on the planting date intensification can change the distribution of labor demand and reduce the amount of labor required for final weedingbecause of the cowpeas competition with the weeds Although returns to labor can be greater under intensification farmers do cite lower cereal yields and increased labor demands as the prime reasons for not intensifyshying (Matlon 1983)
Limited research has been carried out on cropping associations involvshying trees in the WASAT Alley cropping--food crops grown in the alleyformed by rows of leguminous shrubs or trees--could form one basis for changing traditional shifting cultivation practices (Kang et al 1984)Alley cropping does possess many potential advantages such as providingmulch firewood biologically fixed nitrogen animal feed and erosion conshytrol However it is very management-intensive and has not been thoroughly researched in the WASAT
Some intensification of cereal and legume crops can take place in the intermediate run once the physical environment is improved but significant crop intensification alley cropping and biological nitrogen fixation would contribute their greatest potential in the long run after farmers first increase their cereal production
54
Sequencing of Technologies and Farm Management Practices in the WASAT
With falling cereal yields and the decline of the bush-fallow system in high density population areas the first necessity is to develop new technology systems to increase cereal yields Based upon the information of the proposed technologies as to their present agronomic technical and economic feasibility (Table 1) the overall sequential pattern of technoshylogical adoption would be to use the technologies available in the short run to alleviate the soil fertilitvwater retention constraints ie fertilizer tied ridges diguettes and dikes This would require alleviatshying the labor constraint in the peak-labor-demand period of plantingweedshying through available labor-saving technologies ie animal traction and the MRT
Once the agronomic environment has been improved new variety developshyment will be facilitated The development of these varieties will take time and be available in the intermediate run as compared with the more immediate availability of the tied ridgingfertilization technology combishynation Crop association intensification and diversification and other long run technologies and farm management techniques would then be incorshyporated as they become technically feasible Thus the overall sequential pattern of technology adoption can be dichotomized into a) technologies for the present cereal based farming systems and b) technologies and farm manshyagement practices for the Euture (intensified) farming systems
Technologies for the Present Farming Systems
Production constraints household endowments and household decision making characteristics are heterogeneous in the WASAT leiding to differshyences in the technology requirements and adoption patterns of various households Thus the delineation of recommendation domains can aid the targeting of research extension and government policy and programs This section of the chapter first delineates a set of recommendation domains based on production constraints household characteristics and resource endowments The technologies available in the short run (Table 1) are then sequenced as to the probable adoption pattern within each recommendation domain
55
Recommendation Domains Based on Production Constraints
The labor endowment shortage is homogeneous throughout the WASAT but access to land is not Old settlement high-population-density areas exhibit limited to zero fallow rotation due to the limited access to land In general land quality and yield in the older settlement areas is lower than on the frontier which has access to land ind utilizes the traditional bush-fallow system Both intensification and extensification options are available on the frontier whereas only the intensification options are available in the old settlement areas due to the limited access to land Thus technology adoption choices are different in the two areas and a delineation can be made on a population density basis as follows
A Old settlementhigh-population-density areas (ie Central Plateau Burkina Faso)
B Frontierlow-population-density areas
Recommendation domains can also be made on an agroclimatic basis Higher rainfall and relatively higher soil fertility in a general north to south direction within the WASAT vary technology requirements and expected adoption patterns
Recommendation Domains Based on Household Characteristics and Endowments
Farmers have been found to be mainly risk averse (Binswanger 1980 Dillon and Scandizzo 1978) However the risk aversion of farmers within a group may range between high risk aversion and low risk avoidance depending on their initial endowments ie wealth Theoretically the risk that a household will assume is positively correlated with household wealth-shywealth being largely embodied in livestock holdings (mainly cattle) Wealth can also be considered positively correlated with the ability of a household to invest in purchased inputs or absorb larger losses in a poor rainfall season Household characteristics are further delineated into the type cf traction (manual or animal) presently being used This leads to the following recommendation domains Ysed on the household characteristics of risk wealth and type of traction
I A high risk aver3e low wealth manual tillage household--may only adopt low riT technologies and has limited ability to buy purshychased inputs
II A low risk averse high wealth animal traction household--chance of technology adoption higher due to the greater ability to buy purchased inputs
III A low risk averse high wealth manual traction household--chance of technology adoption higher due to greater ability to buy purshychased inputs but has not yet made the transition to animal traction
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Six recommendation domains are presented in Table 5 based upon the household characteristics and population density (access to land) typoloshygies described earlier The recommendation domains are for the 500 to 900 mm annual rainfall regions The potential sequential adoption patterns of the available technologies in the short run for the present cereal based farming systems--complex fertilizers tied ridging animal traction and the MRT--are presented in Table 5 for each recommendation domain The sequencing patterns of the technologies for each recommendation domain are based on the previous discussion of farmers adoption strategies where technologies are adopted singly or in clusters in a logical agronomic and economR sequence This is discussed for each recommendation domain below
IA High Risk Averse Central Plateau Manual Households
With limited access to land limited ability to buy purchased inputs and high risk aversion the opportunities for the household in the first stage of technology adoption are to manually construct tied ridges and use other water retention techniques such as diguettes which use available famshyily labor Linear programming (LP) results indicate that up to 1 hectare could be put in tied ridges manually by the average household which would increase production and income (Table 3 column 1) Also survey results indicated that households used tied ridging at FSU village sites and did tied ridging between 13 and 1 hectare per household (Ohm et al 1985a) Tied ridging is agronomically feasible and economically profitable For this highly risk averse group tied ridging is especially attractive beshycause there is no ris 5of losing a cash outlay with only family labor being utilized for ridging
The next step in the sequence of technology adoption would involve a cash outlay Fertilizer is an option on the land in tied ridges espeshycially in the more southern regions of the WASAT where rainfall is higher Fertilizer use although profitable (Table 2 column 4 Nedogo) would be limited by the small hectarage under tied ridges and the tendency of this group of farmers to avoid risks
Animal traction in combination with the MRT would seem to be the next step in the sequence This combination is not only labor saving but yield increasing as well The addition of the MRT to the machinery complement increases the internal rate of return from 10 for animal traction fWeedshying) alone (Jaeger 1984) to between 30-40 on the Central Plateau LP analysis (Table 3 column 4) indicates that the combination of animal tracshytion and the MRT enables the construction of tied ridges on up to 65 of available cereal land on the average or representative farm and increases total cereals production and income above that of traditional practices and
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Table 5 Recommendation domains and likely sequential adoption patterns of technologies in the WASAT
1 2Household Central Plateau Frontier Characteristics A B
I High risk aversion 1 Manual tied ridges-diguettes 1 Animal traction 3
Low wealth endowment 2 Animal traction-MRT 2 MRT Manual traction 3 Fertilizer 3 Fertilizer
4 Improved varieties 4 Improved varieties
II Low risk aversion 1 Fertilizer 1 MRT High wealth endowment 2 MRT 2 Fertilizer Animal traction 3 Improved varieties 3 Improved varieties
III Low risk aversion 1 Fertilizer 1 Animal traction High wealth endowmont 2 Animal traction 2 MRT Manual traction 3 MRT 3 Fertilizer
4 Improved varieties 4 Improved varieties
1 High density population limited access to land and in general lower quality land than the Frontier
2 Low population density access to land and in generel higher quality land than the Central Plateau
T MRT - the mechanical ridge tier
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17
manual tied ridging With the increase in income households would then be in a better position to purchase fertilizers Internal rates of return for an animal traction-MRT-fertilizer combination range from 25-30 and increase production and income over the animal traction-MRT combination (contrast Table 3 column 4 with Table 4 column 4)
IB High Risk Averse Frontier Manual Households
Households included in this category could follow the manual tied ridgingdiguette regime of Type IA households on maize compound land but may find it as profitable and less labor constraining to maintain the bushshyfallow system for sorghum and millet and use animal traction The present internal rate of return using donkey and ox traction has been estimated to be 31 and 21 respcCtively for a frontier area but the rates of return can be doubled with increased utilization thus making the technology very profshyitable (Jaeger 1984) Next in the sequential adoption pattern would be the use of the MRT The use of the MRT by households may not be used conshycurrently with the introduction of animal traction but the incentive for its utilization would increase as population pressure increased and land became more scarce With internal rates of return of 35-40 for donkey traction and 25-30ior ox traction mechanical ridge tying at the frontier could be expected The third step in the sequence would be the addition of fertilizer
IlA Low Risk Averse Central Plateau Animal Traction Households
Animal traction households exhibiting a lower risk aversion and a greater ability to buy purchased inputs will likely find fertilizer as the best option particularly in the more southern areas of the WASAT with higher rainfall The option of using animal traction to extensify is not available because of the limited access to land and thus the next technolshyogy in the sequential adoption pattern would be to use animal traction to intensify using the MRT
IIB Low Risk Averse Frontier Manual Households
As in IB the extensification option of using animal traction will continue to dominate until increased population pressure limits access to land thus making the intensification option of using the MRT more attracshytive--especially in the northern areas of the WASAT where the rainfall is more limited and Aserratic soil fertility declines fertilizer will become more profitable
IIIA Low Risk Averse Central Plateau Manual Households
Households in this category are expected to choose fertilizer over manual tying of ridges because they have the ability to purchase it and are less averse to taking risk Manual tied ridging could also be an option at first but presented with the opportunity of using an animal traction-MRT combination households would probably choose the latter
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IIIB Low Risk Averse Frontier Manual Tillage Households
Although these households would not be averse to using the land-subshystituting inputs a higher payoff is likely to come from extensification using animal traction in the initial stages of technology introduction As population pressure on the higher quality land increases increased utilshyization of the MRT and fertilizer would be expected
In summary different sequential adoption patterns exist for the difshyferent recommendation domains Adoption is expected to be more rapid by those in the low risk aversehigh wealth categories Given the present levels of research exteksion and government program support some groups such as the high risk averselow wealth old settlement farmers may never adopt any of the technologies
Tied ridging chemical fertilizer and animal traction have all been potentially available to farmers in the WASAT over the last two decades Yet little adoption of these technologies for cereal production has taken place Our hypothesis for this lack of adoption is that while the indivishydual technologiuts may be technically and economically feasible the ecoshynomic impact of individual technologies for the level of risk involved has not been sufficiently high Both farm trials and whole-farm modeling indishycate a substantially higher impact from the simultaneous introduction of all three technologies including the MRT The combined introduction of these technologies alleviates the soil fertility soil water and labor constraints and provides tilarge economic incentive at low levels of risk
The requirement th t the available technologies be introduced simulshytaneously to satisfy farmers risk and profit levels before they will be adopted is in conflict with the empirical finding that farmers adopt innoshyvations sequentially An alternative is to wait until new technologies are developed that satisfy the high profit-low risk criteria so that they will be adopted individually in a sequential manner Another alternative is to use support programs in view of the pressing nature of the problems in the WASAT Support trograms would have to take into consideration the sequenshytial nature of adoption while trying to achieve total package adoption as quickly as possible Animal traction farmers may adopt an MRTfertilizer package simultaneously given high economic incentives and support programs but clearly for manual farmers (the majority) the combined introduction of animal traction the MRT and a fertilizer package all at once in one year is too great
The main thrust of the support program should be to select the first technology within each recommendation donain (Table 5) and provide economic incentives that make the level of risk of the technology acceptable to farmers For example the first technology in the sequence of recommendashytion domains IB and IIB (Table 5) is animal traction Support programs
60
would be required to deal with the pre-conditions for animal traction adopshytion (as discussed in Chapters IV and V) and provide adequate economic incentives At a later period when farmers are acquainted with animal traction support programs would deal with the next technology in the sequence for each recommendation domain Following this procedure will reduce the adoption time between technologies within the package The supshyport programs should lead to the adoption of a soil fertility-water retention-labor saving technology package within each recommendation domain Without support programs technology adoption of the present techshynologies available to the WASAT will be very slow with some farmers--in particular the high risk averselow wealth farmers--not adopting any of the technologies
Technologies for Future Farming Systems
The long-run goal of technology introduction for future farming sysshytems is to change the upgraded dominant cereal-based farming system into a more intensified cereal-foragelivestock-cash crop farming systemInformation on the agronomic and economic feasibility of the technologies that may come into play in future farming systems is incomplete making it impossible to sequence the individual technologies as was done for technolshyogies available for present farming systems
Improvements in the present cereal-based farming systems will set the stage for a more intensive crop association and rotation regime Given the yield increase from the fertilizertied ridgesimproved variety combinashytion an estimation has been made that moderate cereal surpluses could be expected in the WASAT in the future with the adoption of these technologies (Savadogo 1986) This would make it possible to shift some production out of cereals and utilize available land labor and capital on more intensive cerealforagecash crop rotations--especially cereallegume rotations that could provide biological nitrogen fixation and reduce the costs of and dependency upon outside sources of nitrogen
Feed availability would increase livestock numbers and improve animal traction not only by better nutrition but also by shifting to more oxen power and away from the lower draft donkey power that dominates low qualityforage farming systems This would mean better crop residue incorporation and green manuring opportunities With increased livestock numbers in proximity to the household more manure would be available Although farmshyers would initially adopt these technologies sequentially the process of adoption would be an iterative one as the more intensive use of one techshynology allows a more intensive use of another ie increased forageallows more cattle to be kept near the compound resulting in more manure which in turn may allow more forage hectarage
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Footnotes
It would be more appropriate to measure risk in terms of a time series
variance (ie over many years) as opposed to a cross sectional varishyance method (ie over many farmers in one year) as used here Three years of data make it difficult to undertake a time series risk analyshysis For a textbook treatment of risk analysis see Anderson et al 1977
2 Tied ridges (TR) are small depressions made between crop rows either by
hand tillage or by a combination of animal traction and hand tillage When constructed by hand depressions 32 cm long x 24 cm wide x 16 cm deep spaced 1-12 meters apart are made between the rows When conshystructed with animal traction the fields are first ridged with a cultishyvator (houe manga) which is equipped with a middle sweep to create a furrow This is then followed by hand tillage to make a 16 cm high ridge perpendicular to the furrow every one to two meters The depresshysions catch and hold water after a rain and increase water infiltration and retention Due to the larger water holding capacity of animal tracshytion tied ridges water retention ability is greater than that of manually tied ridges
One exception should be noted Traditionally maize is grown on the relshyatively higher fertility compound land Three years of on-farm researcher-manageu trials experimenting with maize on non-compound land with TR in general did not show significant yield increases (FSU Annual Report 1983 Lang et al 1984 and Ohm et al 1985a) These expershyiments appear to indicate the need to first utilize organic material or fertilizer to convert the less fertile land into the equivalent of comshypound land before putting the tied ridges on it if maize is to be grown there
4 All the FSU economic analyses have been carried out using subsidized fertilizer prices (40 to 50) Clearly the economic profitability would be lower and the incidence of fertilizer cash outlay loss greater utilizing unsubsidized prices
Trials examining the possibility of growing maize on good sorghum land and sorghum on good millet land by upgrading the soil through a fertilshyizertied ridge combination were also conducted Three years of onshyfarm researcher-managed maize on sorghum land trials proved inconclushysive (FSU Annual Reports) and although a sorghum on millet land experishyment showed promise sorghum plant establishment was a problem (Ohm et al ]985a)
6 The observed farmer adoption rates in different regions correlate well
with experimental evidence which sugests that yields are less variable and more responsive to fertilizer and that there is less risk of losing fertilizer cash outlay as rainfall levels and land quality improves
62
When questioned farmers said that they saw the value of fertilizer but that credit and availability were obstacles to greater use All complex fertilizers are imported from outside the WASAT and usually distribution within each country is handled by a para-statal organization
8 An FSU on-farm farmer-managed experiment involving tied ridges and
mulch (5 Tha) on maize was conducted in two village sites in Burkina in 1984 (Ohm et al 1985a p 17) The mulch part of the experiment was abandoned since only 6 of the 50 farmers had access to sufficient mulch
The MRT is attached to an animal drawn cultivator with one large middle sweep The MRT is essentially a paddle wheel (45 cm in diameter) with four paddles one scraping the ground building up earth until it is tripped by the operator every 1-12 to 2 meters to create the tie in the furrow between the two ridges
10 Analysis of five management factors--plowing tied ridges fertilization
timing planting arrangement and weeding timing--indicated that the major determinants of the yield gap between the experiment station and farmers fields were plowing and tied ridges (Matlon 1985) Also the major problems observed in the on-farm trials with the elite cultivars are drought and heat stress related leading to poor seedling establishshyment and poor flowering and grain filling ability Spittlebug problems have occurred on the new sorghum variety of Framida (Ohm et al 1985b) and striga continues to be a problem with most new sorghum varieties
11 The development of hybrid varieties such as the hybrid sorghums bred for
the Sudan (Gebisa 1986) may play a role in obtaining moderate level management response The poor marketing infrastructures of the WASAT however vould prevent hybrids from being a technology that could be used in the short run Present breeding for disease and pest resistance in sorghim and millet is encouraging (Andrews 1986 Andrews et al 1985) and is expected to play an important role in increasing cereal yields in the intermediate run
12 Empirical evidence linking reduced risk aversion with higher levels of
wealth is not available in the WASAT It has been a standard part of decision theory that at higher levels of wealth risk aversion would decrease (Anderson et al 1977) This proposition seems to be consisshytent with field interviews with farmers about their objectives (see Chapter IV page of this report)
13 Not included among the categories is a high risk averse low wealth
animal traction household While this category undoubtedly exists in the WASAT the number of households in this category would alot be large
14 The recommendation domains presented in Table 5 are discussed at the
inter-household level which considers resource endowments and decisionshymaking in the context of a family unit vis-a-vis another family unit
63
The recommendation domains could also be discussed at the intrashyhousehold level which considers differences--in gender age and access to and control of resources within the household--which may lead to difshyferences in the sequencing and types of technologies adopted by the various sub-groups (see McKee 1983 Nagy et al 1985)
15 The opportunity cost of labor (wage rate from outside employment) ranges
from 30 to 50 FCFAhr (FSU unpublished survey data) At an opportunity cost of 35 FCFAhr farmers would not have lost money by undertaking the construction of tied ridges (Table 2)
16 Calculations made using the procedure by Jaeger (1984) and adding apshy
propriate costs and revenues based on FSU on-farm farmer-managed trials to estimate the yield increases from the use of the MRT (Ohm et al 1985b Nagy et al 1986)
17 The weekly available labor hour figures used in the model are based on
conservative estimates Increasing the labor availabilities by 10 to 20 for the tied ridging period andor allowing tied ridging to also take place in the following period results in tied ridges being conshystructed on all the cereal land
CHAPTER VI
POLICY IMPLICATIONS AND FUTURE AVENUES FOR RESEARCH AND EXTENSION
This report has proposed that the overall sequence of technology intervention for the WASAT is 1) technologies that improve the agronomicenvironment ie water retention and soil fertility improvement With appropriate policy and institutional support this technology combination can be immediately implemented 2) the use when they become available of improved varieties that can exploit moderate input levels If varieties are developed for the moderate input levels recommended in 1) above this techshynology is expected to be available for farmer adoption in the next five to ten years and 3) more intensive livestockcereal systems in the better agricultural areas and a shift back to extensive grazing and forestry in the more marginal agricultural regions There are many types of technolshyogies for those intensive livestockcerealcash crop systems that can now be productively studied on the experiment station and in on-farm trials so that these systems can be available to farmers after the next decade
The first priority of the agricultural policy research and extension community in the WASAT is to develop technologies to increase the yields of the cereal-based systems dominate the The presentfarming which area focus should be on alleviating the low soil fertilitylow soil water retenshytion constraints Complex fertilizers the water retention methods of tied ridges diguettes and dikes and the labor-saving technologies of animal traction and the mechanical ridge tier are a]rady available for extension in much of the region
Tied ridging chemical fertilizer and animal traction however have all been potentially available to farmers in the WASAT for more than two decades Yet there has been little adoption by WASAT food crop producers of any of these three innovations This is because there was little ecoshynomic incentive to adopt these technologies prior to the 1960s because food consumption needs were being met Moreover there was little export demand for sorghum and millct Hence there was little demand for new cereal technologies However with increased population recent droughtsand the deterioration of the soil quality in the higher population regions during the intervening years the demand for new cereal technology has subshystantially increased
Credit fertilizer and animal traction non-availability and lack of information have all been cited as reasons for the low level of farmer adoption of the above technologies in the WASAT From our perspective the principal reason for the failure to adopt these individual components is that the economic impact of each of the three components has not been sufshyficiently high by itself Fertilizer utilization is too risky in poorrainfall years without some simultaneous method to increase the availabilshy
water the critical times of plant development themselves do not resolve the low soil fertility problem Family labor
ity of at Tied ridges by
65
availability constrains the amount of tied ridging construction It apshypears from the on-farm trials and the whole-farm modeling results that all three technologies (including the MRT) would need to be introduced togetherbefore economic incentive and risk levels are adequate for technology adoption Introducing the technologies together would alleviate the soil fertiltty soil water and labor constraints and provide high economic incentives at levels of risk that would be attractive to farmers However as previously discussed farmers adopt technologies sequentially and not as a package
An option is to wait for the research community to develop new techshynologies that will individually provide a sufficient economic incentive at a level of risk that is attractive to farmers Another option is to develop support programs that will enable farmers to sequentially adopt the available technologies en route to total package adoption The review of the constraints to cereal production and the review of the available and future technologies for the WASAT (Chapters IV and V) point out that such individual technologies will not be available in the short run and will probably not be available in the intermediate run (10-15 years) The pressing problems of the WASAT require more immediate solutions which can only be brought about by support programs to facilitate the adoption of the available technologies If the package of available technologies is introshyduced without special government programs farmers are expected to adoptthe technologies in the sequence given for each recommendation domain as outlined in Chapter V (Table 5) Adoption by recommendation domain would vary with those in the low risk aversehigh wealth categories adopting the technologies first groups such asSome the high risk averselow wealth old settlement farmers may never adopt any of the technologies
Implementation of a support program to increase the present cereal production in the WASAT would include
a) credit programs for the cash outlays required by farmers for fershytilizer and animal traction
b) farm mnagement information especially on efficient utilization of animal traction and fertilizer from the extension service
c) development of the input and product markets
thrustA main of the support program would be to select the technologieswithin each recommendation dolvin that farmers would most likely adopt
described Ta|IlAfirst (as in 5) and provide the economic incentives and pre-conditions for farmers to adopt the technology Once farmers become acquainted with the technology the next technology would be supported in a similar manner and so on until the total technology package was adoptedAppropriate economic incentives and pre-conditions would ensure that techshynology adoption proceeded as quickly as possible so that all the farmers could adopt the total package in the shortest possible time
66
To facilitate new-technology introduction some of the potential typesof research and extension institutional support programs are mentioned below
Priorities for Extension and Local Governments
The highest priorities for extension and local government agencies involve focusing on the soil fertilitywater retention technologies of manshyual tied ridging diguettes and dikes complex fertilizers animal traction and the mechanical ridge tier These technologies should be put forward on demonstration fields (using local farmer participation where appropriate) individually and as packages for each of the recommendation domains
There is a role for local government agencies in the construction and maintenance of large dikes and barriers to regulate the speed of rainfall runoff at the village level Within each region individual households would either construct tied ridges andor diguettes--whichever is the most appropriate for the area Where diguettes are used assistance from local government agencies may be required for correct contour placement
A critical role will have to be undertaken by extension agencies to ensure that the appropriate preconditions exist for animal traction adopshytion The preconditions of shorter learning curves for both the farmer and draft animals and higher utilization rates can be facilitated by animal traction programs Extension agencies could be involved in training farmshyers (technical operation and animal maintenance) and in the training of draft animals until a draft animal market develops Shortening the learnshying curve will itseli increase utilization rates which can be further increased by an appropriate complement of implements including the mechanshyical ridge tier
Priorities for On-Farm Testing
The prototype IITA mechanical ridge tier requires further modificashytions at the engineering level to reduce its weight and awkwardness and increase its adaptability for hook-up with a wide range of cultivatorplow equipment (Nagy et al 1986a) Other possibilities include an automatic tripping device and even new design concepts which need to be rigorously field tested with farmer participation As modifications and new design concepts are developed they must be made available to the extension system and local manufacturers and provisions made for information feedback to the on-farm testing agencies The mechanical ridge tier is an implement that can be made locally and every attempt by the local extension agencies to provide prototype copies to local manufacturers should be undertaken Locally-made mechanical ridge tiers enable location-specific adaptations arising from a local manufacturerfarmer interchange
Priorities also include further on-farm testing of diguettes and of modifications of diguettes and barriers Further on-farm testing across the WASAT of raw and acidulated rock phosphate from all the major rock
67
phosphate deposits in the WASAT is required to evaluate the agronomic and economic feasibility of this technology
Priorities for Experimental Research Stations
On-station crop improvement programs require a change in the presentemphasis on screening and selection under high management conditions--manshyagement conditions much higher than can be provided by WASAT farmers in the intermediate run Thus crop improvement programs in the WASAT should conshycentrate on developing varieties that show stability over time and exhibit a response curve that exploits moderate management levels Selection must be focused on resistance to important pests and diseases as well as producshytion superiority under varying levels of soil productivity and available soil moisture--all of which contribute to production stability This change in crop development goals requires new screening and selection proshycedures and an increased interdisciplinary effort between on-station and on-farm research
The designing of labor-saving devices for fertilizer applicationplanting and other field operations should be further studied for both manual and animal traction farmers where applicable Research on water retention methods other than tied ridges or diguettes is required for those areas where these two technologies are not effective especially on the sandier soils characterizing much of the Sahelo-Sudanian zone
CHAPTER VII
SUMMARY
Whole-farm modeling was critical in identifying the potential effect of new technologies and in evaluating the seasonal labor bottleneck As onshyfarm trials produce more technologies that pass the yield and profit criteria whole farm modeling analysis will become increasingly important to identify the interactions of technology components and estimate their potenshytial impact at the farm level
A major contribution of the Purdue farming systems research project was not the identification of the individual constraints but rather a study of their interconnected nature It is necessary for farming systems research projects to concentrate on the well-known synergistic nature of agricultural inputs and not be satisfied with minimum cost input changes which also have minimal effects on yields or profits
The seasonal labor constraint has been stressed as the principal barshyrier to agricultural development in the WASAT and in other semi-arid areas in Africa However a more agronomic orientation to the analysis of the water requirement and 1oil fertility problems was necessary The combined effect of improved water retention increases in soil fertility and overshycoming the seasonal labor bottleneck with the mechanical tied ridger had a substantial impact on farm income Since the combined effects are much larger than the individual effects it is unfortuuiLte that farmers tend to adopt one input at a ime Governmental support of the combined practices appears to be necessary to facilitate their combined introduction
(0 References
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deDatta S K K A Gomez R W Herdt arid R Barker 1978 A handbook on the methodology for an integrated experiment-survey on rice yieldconstraints International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) Los Banos Philippines
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Dillon John L 1976 The economics of systems research Agricultural Systems 15-22
Dillon J L and J R Anderson 1985 Concept and practice of farming systems Mimeo Department of Agricultural Economics and Business Management Univerity of New England Armidale NSW Australia
Dillon J L and P Scandizzo 1978 Risk attitudes of subsistence farmers in northeast Brazil A sampling approach American Journal of Agricultural Economics 60425-35
Doster D H B A McCarl and P R Robbins 1981 Purdue crop budget model B-96 EC-541 Agricultural Economics Department Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Dugue P 1985 Soil preparation in the Sudan-Sahelian zone Prospects and constraints Tn Appropriate technologies for farmers in semishyarid West Africa H W Ohm and J G Nagy (eds) International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Eicher Carl K 1983 West Africas agrarian crisis Paper prepared for the fifth bi-annual conference of the West African Association of Agricultural Economists Abidjan Ivory Coast
FSUSAFGRAD 1983 FSUSAFCRAD 1982 Annual Report International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Fussell L K and P G Serafini 1985 Crop associations in the semishyarid tropics of West Africa In Appropriate technologies for farmers in semi-arid West Africa H W Ohm and J G Nagy (eds) Internashytional Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Gebisa Ejeta 1986 Breeding sorghum hybrids for irrigated and rainfed conditions in the Sudan Proceedings International drought symposium on food grain production in the semi-arid regions of Sub-Saharan Africa Nairobi Kenya
Ghodake R D and J B Hardaker 1981 Whole-farm modeling for assessshyment of dryland technology International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRlSAT) Patancheru Andhra Pradesh India
Hardaker J Brian Jock R Anderson and John L Dillon 1984 Perspecshytives on assessing the impacts of improved agricultural technologies in developing countries Australian Journal of Agricultural Economics 2887-108
international Fertilizer Development Center 1985 Fertilizer research program for Africa The fate sources and management of nitrogen and phosphorous fertilizers in Sub-Saharan Africa Muscle Shoals Alabama
72
Jaeger W K 1983 Animal traction and resource productivity Evidence from Upper Volta Paper presented at the third annual farming systems research symposium Kansas State University Manhattan Kansas
Jaeger W K and J H Sanders 1985 Profitability of animal traction Field study in Burkina Faso In Appropriate technologies for farmers in semi-arid West Africa I W Ohm and J G Nagy (eds) Internashytional Programs in Agriculcure Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Kang B T C F Wilson and T L Lawson 1984 Alley cropping A stable alternative to shifting cultivation International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) Ibadan Nigeria
Kowal J M and A H Kassam 1978 Agricultural Ecology of Savanna A Study of West Africa Oxford University Press Oxford England
Lang M G R P Cantrell H W Ohm and S Sawadogo 1984 FSUSAFGRAD 1983 Annual Report International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Lang Mahlon C Ronald P Cantrell and John H Sanders 1983 Identifyshying farm level constraints and evaluating new technology in UpperVolta Staff Paper Department of Agricultural Economics Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Lang Mahlon G Ronald P Cantrell Herbert W Ohm and Sibiri Sawadogo 1984 FSUSAFGRAD 1983 Annual Report International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Mann Charles K 1978 Packages of practices A step at a time with clusters Studies in Development Middle East Technical University Ankara Turkey
Martinez Juan Carlos and Jose Roman Arauz 1984 Developing appropriate technologies through on-farm research The lessons from Caisan Panama Agricultural Administration 1797-114
Matlon P J 1985 A critical review of objectives methods and progress to date in sorghum and millet improvement A case study of ICRISAT Burkina Faso In Appropriate technologies for farmers in semi-arid West Africa H W Ohm and J G Nagy (eds) International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Matlon Peter J 1983 The potential for increased food production in semi-arid West Africa Paper presented at the IFPRI-University of Zimbabwe Conference on Accelerating Agricultural Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa Victoria Falls Zimbabwe 29 August - 1 September
73
Matlon Peter J 1983 Technology evaluation Five case studies from West Africa In Coming full circle Farmers participation in the development of technology International Development Research Council (IDRC) Ottawa Ontario Canada
Matlon P J and D Spencer 1984 Increasing food production in Sub-Saharan Africa Environmental problems and inadequate technologicalsolutions American Journal of Agricultural Economics 56671-76
McCarl B A 1982 REPFARM Design calculation and interpretation ofthe linear programming model Station Bulletin No 385 AgriculturalExperiment Station Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
McKee Catherine 1984 Methodological challenges in analyzing the houseshyhold in farming systems research Intra-household resource allocation In proceedings of the Kansas State Universitys 1983 Farming SystemsSymposium C (ed)Flora Kansas State University Manhattan Kansas
McMillan Della 1979 Agricultural development and migration in three villages outside Kaya Upper Volta Department of AgriculturalEconomics Purdue University W Lafayette MimeoIN USAID Contracts AFR-C-1257 amp 1258
McNamara R S 1985 The challenges for sub-Saharan Africa Sir John Crawford Memorial Lecture November 1 Consultative Group on Internashytional Agricultural Research Washington DC
Muleba N F Brockman and 1985D Kagne Variety development for associated cropping In Appropriate technologies for farmers in semi-arid West Africa H W Ohm and JG Nagy (eds) International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Nagy J G and HW Ohm 1986 FSUSAFGRAD 1985 Annual Report Internashytional Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Nagy J G L L Ames and H W Ohm 1985 Technology evaluation polshyicy change and farmer adoption in Burkina Faso International Programsin Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Nagy J G H W Ohm L L Ames and L D Schaber 1986a Analysis ofthe IITASAFGRAD mechanical ridge tier International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Nagy J G H W Ohm and Sibiri Sawadogo 1986b Burkina Faso A case study of the Purdue UniversitySAFGRAD farming systems project Intershynational Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiaila
74
Nicholson SE 1982 The Sahel A climatic perspective Club du S-Ihel Joint CILSS and OECD publication
Nicou R and C Charreau 1985 Soil tillage and water conservation in semi-arid West Africa In Appropriate technologies for farmers insemi-arid West Africa H W Ohm and J C Nagy (eds) International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Norman D W 1982 Socioeconoimc considerations in sorhgum farming sysshytems In Proceedings Sorghum in the Eighties International CropsResearch Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics Patancheru A P India
Norman D MW D Newman and I Ouedraogo 1981 Farm and villageproduction systems in the semi-arid tropics of West Africa An intershypretive review of research ICRISAT Research Bulletin No 4International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics(ICRISAT) Patancheru Andhra Pradesh India
Ogungbile A 0 1980 An evaluation of sole-crop production technology on small farms in northern Nigeria under different farm power sources A multiperiod linear programming approach PhD dissertation Iowa State University Ames Iowa
Ohm Herbert W and Joseph G Nagy (eds) 1985 Appropriate technologiesfor farmers in semi-arid West Africa Proceedings of a workshop April2-5 Ouagadougou Burkina Faso IPIA Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana (English and French)
Ohm Herbert W Joseph G Nagy and Christopher Pardy 1985a FSUSAFGRAD 1984 Annual Report International Programs in AgriculturePurdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Ohm Herbert W Joseph C Nagy and Sibiri Sawadogo 1985b Complimenshytary effects of tied ridging and fertilization with cultivation bymanual and donkey and ox traction In Appropriate technologies forfarmers in semi-arid West Africa H W Ohm and J G Nagy (eds)International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Paulino L A and John W Mellor 1984 The food situation in developingcountries Two decades in review Food Policy 9291-303
Pieri C 1985 Food crop fertilization and soil fertility The IRAT experience In Appropriate technologies for farmers in semi-arid West Africa H W Ohm and J G Nagy (eds) International Programsin Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Pinstrup-Andersen Per and Peter B R Hazell 1985 The Jrpact of theGreen Revolution and prospects for future Reviewsthe Food International 11-25
75
Reeves Edward B and Timothy Frankenberger 1982 Socio-economic conshystraints to the production distribution and consumption of sorghummillet and cash crops in North Kordstan Sudan Report No 2INTSORMIL Departments of Sociology and Anthropology University of Kentucky Lexington Kentucky
Rodriguez M 1982 Rapport Annuel 1982 Programme dagronomie du mais de IITASAFGRAD Ouagadougou Burkina Faso SAFGRAD International Institute of Tropical Agriculture
Roth M P Abbott JH Sanders and L McKinzie 1986 An applicationof whole-farm modeling to new technology evaluation Central Mossi Plateau Burkina Faso International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Ruthenberg Hans 1980 Farming systems in the tropics Oxford Univershysity Press New York
Sanders John H 1984 The evolution of farming systems research Towards where Department of Agricultural Economics Purdue Univershysity West Lafayette Indiana
Sanders John H and John K Lynam 1982 Evaluation of new technology on farms Methodology someand results from two crop programs at CIAT Agricultural Systems 997-112
Sanders John H Joseph G Nagy and Barry Shapiro 1986 Developing and evaluating new agricultural technology for the Sahel A case study in Burkina Faso International Programs in Agriculture Purdue Univershysity West Lafayette Indiana
Sanders J 1985H and M Roth The development and evaluation of new systems of agricultural production Some field model results from Burkina Faso for tied ridges and fertilization In Appropriate techshynologies for farmers in semi-arid West Africa H W Ohm and J G Nagy (eds) International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Saunders Margaret 0 1980 Farming systems research unit working papersNumber 1 Agriculture in Upper Volta The institutional frameworkNumber 2 Local ecology population and ethnic groups in Upper Volta Number 3 The Mossi farming system of Upper Volta International Proshygrams in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Sawadogo Kimseyinga 1986 An analysis of the economic and sociodemoshygraphic determinants of household food consumption in OuagadougouBurkina Faso PhD dissertation Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
76
Sawadogo Sibiri Joseph G Nagy and Herbert W Ohm 1985 Cerealsshycowpea associations in Burkina Faso In Appropriate technologies for farmers in semi-arid West Africa H W Ohm and J G Nagy (eds)International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Simmonds Norman W 1984 The state of the art of farming systems reshysearch World Bank Washington DC
Spencer D 1985 A research strategy to develop appropriate agriculturaltechnologies for small farm development in Sub-Saharan Africa In Appropriate technologies fer farmers in semi-arid West Africa H W Ohm and J G Nagy (eds) International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Stoop W A C M Pattanayak P J Matlon and W R Root 1982 A strategy to raise the productivity of subsistence farming systems in the West African semi-arid tropics In Sorghum in the Eighties Proceedings of the International Symposium on Sorghum Vol 2 Internashytional Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) Andhra Pradesh India pp 519-526
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Wright Peter 1985 Water and soil conservation by farmers In Approshypriate technologies for farmers in semi--irid West Africa H W Ohm and J G Nagy (eds) International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
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77
APPENDIX 1
Administrative Report
In December 1978 Purdu University was awarded a two year contract with the US Agency for International Development to establish and operate a farming systems research unit in Burkina Faso as one of the components of the Semi-Arid Food Grain Research and Development Program (SAFGRAD)
This contract AFR-C-1472 had several mandates
1 Analyze small farm conditions and application of new technologies to those conditions
2 Formulate strategies regarding development and application of small farm relevant technology
3 Develop recommendations regarding physical research priorities and
4 Design help organize and analyze farmer field trials and studies as a means of performing the above
After several extensions the contract was amended in 1985 to reflect an additional set of objectives
1 Complete the transfer of the farming systems research methodology and techniques gained under this contract to national research organizashytions in the SAFGRAD countries
2 Finalize analysis of empirical research results
3 Finalize and publish guidelines for the methodological analytical or organizational and operational conduct of FSR in the SAFGRAD region
4 In conjunction with the SAFGRAD coordination office complete the groundwork for a West African regional FSR network
The termination of the project occurred on June 30 1986 Field activities in Burkina Faso were maintained through March 31 1986
The body of this report provides a description of the achievements of the project in terms of its mandate This section is the administrative report covering the implementation of this contrast
Contractor staff were provided logistic support by USAID in accordance with local AID procedures this included housing and utilities furniture household equipment and medical facilities to our long term staff In addition two vehicles were provided to our team for the duration of the project These vehicles were financed outside our contract but from SAFGRAD project funds
Initially the Purdue University team comprising an agricultural economist agronomist and rural sociologist were to be provided office
78
space at the Kamboinse Research station outside the city limits of Ouagadougou At the onset the FSU office was established in Ouagadougou then moved to Kamboinse however because the vehicles provided were not very reliable and transportation problems for local hire staff created major problems the office was relocated in Ouagadougou in agreement with SAFGRAD and USAID The FSU team continued to closely work with the ICRISAT and IITA teams who had responsibility for other resetrch components of the SAFGRAD program
At Purdue University a steering committee composed of the departments heads of Agronomy Agricultural Economics and SociologyAnthropology was established to guide activities of the FSU It frequently met to evaluate progress discuss issues relevant to the project and to formulate overall strategy for achieving project objectives
Technical coordination and backstopping for the project was maintained on the Purdue campus during the entire project period Dr Wilford H Morris provided this service from 1978 to June 1983 and Dr John H Sanders from July 1983 to termination On-campus administrative and logistic support was provided by the Office of International Programs in Agriculture under the directorship of T Kelley White and D Woods Thomas Other administrative staff responsible for project activities were Dr James L Collom associate director IPIA and Mrs Katy Ibrahim administrative assistant for the FSU project
In addition Dr Thomas was a participant of the SAFGRAD Technical Advisory Committee (TAG) and Consultative Committee (CC) of the SAFGRAD which met yearly in Burkina Faso These committees were a channel for review of all SAFGRAD activities in WestCentral Africa
During the seven and a half years the FSU project existed a total of nine long-term staff were on site in Burkina Faso for a total of 225 person months (PM)
Paul Christensen agronomist acting chief-of-party February 1979 to December 1981 - 33 PM
Richard Swanson rural sociologist October 1979 to July 1983 - 46 PM
Ram Singh economist and chief of party April 1979 to Macch 1981 - 24 PM
William Jaeger economistcomputer analyst December 1981 to June 1983 - 19 PM
Ronald Cantrell agronomistchief of party February 1982 to January 1984 - 23 PM
Mahlon Lang economist February 1982 to April 1984 - 26 PM
Herbert Ohm agronomistchief of party August 1983 to August 1985 -24 PM
Christopher Pardy economistcomputer analyst December 1983 to Tune 1983 - 16 PM
79
Joseph Nagy economistchief of party July 1984 to April 1985 14-
PM
In addition several short-term technical staff and consultants traveled to Burkina Faso for a total of 185 PM They are as follows
In 979 Kenneth Jones computer specialist at Purdue spent 50 PM to assist our in-country staff in organizing the data management That same year Ms Annie Buryer a sociologist spent 3 months in the field assisting our rural sociologist in setting up the village questionnaires In 1980 Herbert Butler rural sociologist spent 50 PM assisting in the analysis of the collected research dava In 1981 Stan Cohen computer specialist and agricultural economist spent 4 PM in the analysis of socio-economic data Len Malczynski computer specialist also spent 75 PM in the field in organizing the data Iandiing systems Anne-Marie Kaylen MS candidate in the Department of Agricultural Economics spent eight 1PM in the field to collect data for her thesis
Wilford H Morris technical coordinator for the FSU spent 200 PM in the field to provide support to our in-country team
In 1983 Jon Brandt agricultural economist spent 50 PM in Burkina Faso to assist Kirnseyinga Sawadogo in the collection of data for his PhD Thesis In 1984 Charles Rhykerd agronomist and soil specialist spent 75 PM oking with our staff in collecting soil samples and providing agronomLc support to our staff John Sanders as on-campus technical coordinator spent a total of 100 PM in the field working -ith the field economists
Purdue administrative staff also traveled to Burkina Faso during the existence of this project for a total of 45 person months
PM
T Kelley White acting director IPA 50 Paul Farris Head Agricultural Economics Dept 25 D Woods Thomas Director IPIA 150 Katy Ibrahim Administrative Assistant FSU 100 John Sanders Technical Coordinator 75 James L Collom Associate Director IPIA 50
Purdue University also conducted an internal evaluation of project activities in Burkina Faso in 1984 Members of the team who spent one week in-country were
Bernard Liska Dean School of Agricul-ire William Dobson Head Agricultural Economics Department Marvin Phillips Head Agronomy Department D Woods Thomas Director and Associate Dean International Programs in Agriculture
Sawadogo Sibiri participated in the On-Farm Experimentation Workshop University of Harare Zimbabwe (co-sponsored with CIMMYT) February 6-24
80
1984 the East Africa Agricultural Economics Program CIMMYT Nairobi Kenya October 27 to November 6 and in the evaluation of FSR programs with ACPOs in Senegal February 24 to March 1
Three Burkinabe staff enrolled at Purdue University for additional long-term training
Paul Compaore Agricultural Economics MS 1983-1985 Baya Toe Agricultural Economics MS 1983-1985 Kimseyinga Savadogo Agricultural Economics PhD 1979-1986
All have returned to Burkina Faso Dr Savadogo as a professor at the University of Ouagadougou Paul Compaore and Baya Toe are working in the Burkinabe Ministry of Agriculture
All of these educational activities contributed significantly to quality and dependable data collection and team spirit In addition these --aining activities were a significant factor in the transfer of host country technical and research staff to the national agricultural research program IBRAZ
Training for US graduate students was also made possible throughthis project Ms Anne-Marie Kaylen spent eight months in the field colshylecting data for her MS thesis in agricultural economics Also three graduate students funded under the PurdueINTSORMIL project spent eight months each in Burkina Faso working with our staff in support of the project while collecting data for their field research These were Michael Roth PhD Kimseyinga Savadogo PhD and Ann Bukowski MS Under FSU auspices William Jaeger developed his PhD dissertation on the economics of animal traction in Burkina Faso
The Farming Systems Unit project cooperated in the conduct of two regional workshops In September 1983 in cooperation with ICRISAT and IRAT a regional workshop on farmers participation in the development and evaluation of technology was held in Ouagadougou The proceedings of this workshop were published by che International Develpoment Research Centre In April 1985 the FSU in conjunction with the SAFGRAD Coordination Office conducted a workshop on technologies appropriate for farmers in semi-arid West Africa The proceedings of this workshop (in English and French) were distributed widely by the Office of International Programs in Agriculture
Thirty-six research-based technical papers were written and disshytributed under FSU auspices (See Appendix 2 for a listing of these publications)
The Farming Systems Unit project was not without administrative andor logistical problems Included were such things as unavoidable delays in transfer of funds to the field inadequacy of in-country transportation arrangements imperfection in project design establishing FSU relationshipwith national agricultural institutions and international development assistance organizations internal and international political events and the lack of ex-ante long-term contractual and funding commitments Excellent cooperation among the US national regional and international organizations involved in the program made it possible to resolve such issues with minimal impact on project productivity
81
Purdue University is deeply grateful to the OAUSTRC the SAFGRAD and its Consultative and Technical Advisory Committees USAIDOuagadougou AID Washington the government of Burkina Faso ICRISAT IITA and other enshytities for their assistance and cooperation in the conduct of this project Without such the objectives of this ambitious research could not have been attained
82
APPENDIX 2
Publications List
1 FSUSAFGRAD Staff Questionnaire Utilises pour le Etudes Sur les Systems de Production Agricoles Dans Des Villages Echantillons de Haute Volta Farming Systems Unit Project International Programs inAgriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana January 1980
2 Saunders M 0 Farming Systems Research Unit Working papers (1)Agriculture in Upper Volta The Institutional Framework (2) LocalEcology Population and Ethnic Groups in Upper Volta and (3) TheMossi Farming Systems in Upper Volta International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1980
3 Bruyer A Towards a Use of Survey Materials Report on Zone of Zorgho Farming Systems Unit Project International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana May 1980
4 Christensen P J Observations on the Major Classification of Field Trials Used in Farming Systems Research Farming Systems Unit Project International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana January 1981
5 Christensen P J Rock Phosphate Fertilizer in Upper Volta Part 1 Preliminary Report on Policy Implications of Cereal YieldCharacteristics Farming Systems Unit Project International Programsin Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana April 1981
6 Christensen P J and R A Swanson SAFGRADFSU 1981 Research Programs Farfling Systems Unit Project International Programs inAgriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana April 1981
7 Cohen S Costs and Returns of Household Crop Production NedogoUpper Volta Department of Agricultural Economics Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana September 1982
8 Lang M R Cantrell and J IfSanirs Identifying Constraints and Evaluating New Techology in the Purdue Farming Systems Project in Upper Volta in C B Flora (ed) Animals in the Farming SystemKansas State University Manhattan Kansas pp 184-206 1984
9 Jaeger W K Animal Traction and Resource Productivity Evidence from Upper Volta in C B Flora (ed) Animals in the Farming ystem ibid pp 431-460 1984
10 Singh R D E W Kehrberg and W H M Morris Small FarmProduction Systems ii Upper Volta Descriptive and Productive Function Analysis Experiment Station Bulletin Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1984
11 Lang M G and 24 Roth Risk Perceptions and Risk Management byFarmers in Burkina F-aso Paper presented at the Annual FarmingSystems Conference at Kansas State University in 1984
83
12 Rhykerd C L Constraints and Research Needs for Livestock Production in Upper Volta International Programs in AgriculturePurdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1984
13 Sanders J H The Evolution of Farming Systems Research Towards Where International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1984
14 Roth M and J H Sanders An Economic Evaluation of AgriculturalTechnologies and Implications for Development Strategies in Burkina Faso International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana First presented at the Annual Farming SystemsConference at Kansas State University in 1984
15 Lang M G and R C Cantrell Accenting the Farmers Role Purdue Farming Systems Unit in P Matlon R Cantrell D King and M Benoit-Cattin (edited) Coming Full Circle Farmers Participation inthe Development of Technology International Developmernt Research Center Ottawa Canada pp 63-70 1984
16 Lang M H Ohm and R Cantrell Adaptability Analysis of Farmer-Managed Trials in Farming Systems Research International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1985
17 Lang M G Agricultural Production and Marketing Activities of Women in Burkina Faso International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1985
18 Lang M G Crop and Livestock Marketing Patterns in Burkina FasoInternational Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1985
19 Pardy C R Cereal Sales Behavior Among Farm Households in FourVillages in Burkina Faso International Programs i- AgriculturePurdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1985
20 Nagy J G and H W Ohm Economic Analysis of Tied Ridges and Fertilization in Farmer-Managed Sorghum Trials in Burkina Faso Paperpresented at the International Conference of AgricultLal Economists Malaga Spain 1985
21 Nagy J G L L Ames and H W Ohm Tecchnology Evaluation PilicyChange and Farmer Adoption in Burkina Fa Paper presented at the Farming Systems Symposium Kansas State University Manhattan Kansas 1985
22 Schaber L A Literature Review of Soil Fertility in the West Africa Semi-Arid Tropics (WASAT) International Programs in AgriculturePurdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1985
23 Sanders J H J G Nagy and B Shapiro Developing and EvaluatingNew Agricultural Technology for the Sahel A Case Study in Burkina Faso Submitted to Economic Development and Cultural Change 1985
84
24 Ohm H W and J G Nagy (Editcrs) Appropriate Technologies for Farmers in Semi-Arid West Africa International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1985 359 pages (also available in French)
25 Roth M P Abbott J Sanders and L McKinzie An Application of Whole-Farm Modelling to New Technology Evaluation Central Mossi Plateau Burkina Faso International Programs in Agriculture Purdue bniversity West Lafayette Indiana 1986
26 Diallo N N and J C Nagy Burkini Faso Access and Control of Resources in the Farming Systems Recent Legal Political and Socio-Economic Changes Paper presented at the Conference on Gender Issues in Farming Systems Research and Extension Gainesville Florida February 1986
27 Nagy J C and L L Ames Evaluation of New Technologies in Burkina Faso Using Whole Farm Modelling Paper presented at the Annual Conference of American Agricultural Economists Reno Nevada 1986
28 Sanders J H and B Shapiro Agricultural Technology Development in Burkina Faso in Chapter 12 of Y Moses (ed) Proceedings African Agricultural Develompent Conference Technoloiy Ecology and Society California State Polytechnic Institute Pomona California 1986
29 Nagy J G H W Ohm L L Ames and L D Schaber Analysis of IITASAFGRAD Mechanical Ridge Tier International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1986
30 Nagy J G H W Ohm and S Sawadogo Burkina Faso A Case Study of the Purdue UniversitySAFGRAD Farming Systems Project forthcoming in the Florida Farming Systems Project Case Studies Series 1986
31 Ames L L A Preliminary Report on the Evaluation of New Technologies in Burkina Faso International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1986
32 Annual Report (English) 1979
33 Annual Report (English) 1980
34 Annual Report (English) 1982
35 Annual Report (English amp French) 1983
36 Annual Report (English amp French) 1984
37 Annual Report (English) 1985
38 End of Project Report 1986
85
Theses List
1 Kaylen A M Current Farming Conditions in Nedogo and Digre Upper Volta MS Thesis Department of Agricultural Economics Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana August 1982
2 Jaeger W K Agricultural Mechanization The Economics of Animal Traction in Burkina Faso Stanford University unpublished PhD thesis 1984 To be published as a book by Westview Press
3 Bukowski AS Performance of Grain Markets in Selected Areas of Burkina Faso MS Thesis Department of Agricultural Economics Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana May 1986 Utilized some of the data and research support from the FSU project in Upper Volta but was directly supported by INTSORMIL
4 Roth M An Econoimc Evaluation of Agricultural Policy in Burkina Faso West Africa A Sectoral Modeling Approach unpublished PhD dissertation Department of Agricultural Economics Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana May 1986 Utilized some of the data and research support from the FSU project in Upper Volta but was directly supported by INTSORMIL
5 Savadogo K An Analysis of the Economic and Socio-Demographic Determinants (E Household Food Consumption in Ouagaodugou Burkina Faso unpublished PhD dissertation Department of Agricultural Economics Purdvr University West Lafayette Indiana 1986
3
Since the WASAT does nLt have the manland pressure of much of Asia and Asia has been successful in rapidly increasing agricultural production in its prime agricultural areas it is useful to look at the resource base in this region The present manland ratios in the WASAT average roughly15 persons per sq km (World Bank 1985) compared with up to 600 persons per sq km in Asia (McNamara 1985) The poorer agricultural resource base of the WASAT however cannot support the high man-land ratio of Asia (Matlon 1985) For example in the older settlement villages of the Central Plateau of Burkina Faso manland ratios are as high as 60 persons per sqkm (World Bank 1985) These high manland ratios relative to the resource base have been causing the breakdown of the traditional bush-fallow farming systems Traditionally the crop area was cultivated for 3 to 5 years and then left idle for a decade or more to restore soil fertility In many of the older settlement villages increased population has meant limited access to new land a shortening of the fallow rotation period and the culshytivation of more marginal land (Norman et al 1982 Dugue 1985) For example in the village (Figure 2)of Nedogo Burkina Faso many fields have been cultivated as long as the farmers can remember (FSUSAFGRAD 1983) Moreover almost all the crop residues are utilized for feed or building materials or else burned further exhausting the fertility of the soil Declinin7 soil fertility in the older settled regions has bei disshyrupting the cereal production systems pushing the cereals into more marshyginal areas and encouraging a substitution of millet for sorghum (Ames 1986)
During the high rainfall period of the fifties and early sixties intensive crop production was further extended into the Sahelo-Sudanian zone (World Bank 1985) With the droughts and increased desertification of the late sixties and seventies many have become concerned with the posshysible interaction of human settlement and further desertification (Nicholson 1982 World Bank 1985) While this debate has not been resolved there is no doubt that the resource base in much of the Sahelo-Sudanian zone has further deteriorated The cereals deficit problem has become increasingly serious
All three phenomena--the disappearing fallow system the failure to incorporate crop residues and the extension of crop cultivation into more marginal agricultural regions--lead to further soil detcrioration in the absence of technological intervention In overpopulated agriculturalregions such as the Central Plateau of Burkina Faso the bush fallow systemis being replaced by a permanent cultivation system characterized by verylow and stagnant cereal yields (Lang et al 1984 see Ruthenberg 1980 for other examples of this dynamics)
Not all the WASAT is overpopulated Rather many of the regions can be characterized as frontier zones For example the eastern region of Burkina Faso (ie Diapangou Figure 2) with man-land ratios of 15 persons
I
oBURKINA FASO I Principal Cities 3 350
FSU Survey Villages Dori
OuaigoyaBangasse
deg 00 1i0
Dissankuy FauF
Bdobo ogo NGourma 800bullDioulasso bulloBE -I -NIN
TOGOBanfora
GHANA CLIMATIC ZONES Zones Rainfall
IVORY COAST Sahelian NLC- 350IVRYCASlSahelo-Sudanian 350 - 600
Sudanian 600 - 800 Sudano-Guinean Above 800
(I) NLC NORTHERN LIMIT OF CULTIVATION (2) ISOHYETS INn
00
Figure 2 FSU research sites and climatic zones of Burkina Faso
5
per sq km has surplus land and follows the bush-fallow system of cultivashytion However even on the frontier as population pressure increases in the next five years a phenomenon similar to what is now taking place on the Central Plateau of Purkina Faso would be expected to occur It is becoming increasingly important to develop land substituting technologies for the overpopulated regions And although labor substituting technolshyogies are presently still very important on the frontier at the present pace of developnnt the frontier zones will confront similar problems to those in the overpopulated regions during the next decade
Given the present cereals crisis in the WASAT it is becoming critical to develop or ad~pt new agricultural technologies which will reverse the Malthusian trends In the mid-sixties before the start ofthe Green Revolution similar Malthusian statements were made about the agricultural potential of the Indian sub-continent However during the late sixties and seventies agricultural regions in Asia with irrigation or regular assured rainfall had the mosc rapid growth rates in technology diffusion ever empirically documented Although the resource endowment in the WASAT is not as great as that of the Punjab and similar Asian regions research reported here will atuempt to show that there is substantial potential for cereal technology development in the WASAT
The technology development process in the Purdue UniversitySAFGRAD Farming Systems Unit Project had two phases The first phase was the development of a methodology to identify the pressing constraints to cereal production increase and the testing out on farmers fields of technology alternatives available from the experiment station and from similar climatic regions in other countries The second stage was the continued evaluation of successful technologies over a sufficiently long time period and in sufficient detail to allow researchers a feeling of reasonable conshyfidence in their recommendations to both experiment station researchers and to the extension service and government officials involved in agricultural development The principle chapters of this report (III and V) are conshycerned with these two phases of the technology development process The basic methodological concepts potentially useful in other WASAT countries from the farming systems research in Burkina Faso are synthesized in Chapter III In the technology evaluation of Chapter V the results of other WASAT agricultural researchers are combined with those of the Purdue UniversitySAFGRAD Farming Systems program to give a more comprehensive evaluation of the present state of cereal technology development in the WASAT The conclusions synthesize the technology evaluation to draw out the implications for agricultural policy and for future extension and research
6
Footnotes
Rainfall averages have declined by 100 to 150 mm per year since the mid
1960s Updated isohyets using 1961-1985 data were not available In depth information on the countries and regions of the WASAT can be obtained from Kowal and Kassam 1978 McNamara 1985 Norman et al 1981 and World Bank 1985
At present there is some scope for migration to lower population denshysity areas with better soils and rainfall within the WASAT since health investments have been made to eradicate river blindness in some of the more fertile valleys (Sanders et al 1986) Several relocation proshygrams have already been undertakca in Burkina Faso (McMillan 1979) Relocation programs are costly and represent a short to intermediate solution for the WASAI Also people are reluctant to relocate and leave family friends and familar surroundings
CHAPTER II
THE PURDUE SAFGRAD FARMING SYSTEMS UNIT
The Purdue University Farming Systems Unit (FSU) funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) was part of the Semi-Arid Food Grain Research and Development Project (SAFGRAD) from December 1978 to June 1986 SAFGRAD is a regional research coordinating program implemented by the Coordination Office of the Scientific Technical and Research Commission of the Organization of African Unity (OAUSTRC) The SAFGRAD project works in cooperation with 28 sub-Saharan member countries with the coordination office located in Ouagadougou Burkina Faso The principal objective of the SAFGRAD project is to coordinate and strengthen programs in the semi-arid regions of sub-Saharan Africa that are involved in improving sorghum maize millet cowpea and groundnut yields
In the West African Semi-Arid Tropics (WASAT) SAFGRAD coordinates a research and pre-extension program The regional on-station component research is headquartered at the Central Experiment Station at Kamboinse in Burkina Faso and undertaken by IITA and ICRISAT Another component of SAFGRAD in the WASAT is the Accelerated Crops Production Officers (ACPO) program which conducts regional pre-extension and demonstration trials An integral part of the overall program is the farming systems unit which provides linkages between on-station research and the ACPOextension proshygrams The research and extension personnel of SAFGRAD (including the FSR unit) meet yearly to submit an annual report to a Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) The TAC reviews the research programs and submits the results and recommendations to the Consultative Committee (CC) which is a management and policy committee for SAFGRAD The results are passed on to host country research and extension institutions
Within the SAFGRAD framework farming systems research for Burkina Faso was provided by Purdue University for seven years up to June 1986 In the seventies farming systems methodology was still in its infancy Its mandate included the development of methodological guidelines that could be implemented in host country national and SAFGRAD sponsored farming systems programs The specific objectives of FSU were as follows
1 to identify the principle constraints to increased food producshytion
2 to identify technologies appropriate for farmers which could overshycome the production constraints
3 to develop and implement a multidisciplinary research method which could guide production technology and production research to directly address these production constraints
8
4 to identify the elements of that method which could be implemented in national farming systems research programs and
5 to train host country personnel to assume increasing responsibilshyity in their contribution to research
During the life of the FSU program agronomic and socio-economic research was conducted at the on-farm level in five villages (Figure 2) The pecific operational procedures and evolution of the FSU program are reported in Nagy et al 1986b The agronomic and soci-economic field campaign findings of the FSU program are presented in FSU Annual Reports and other FSU publications
In the final year of the contract the FSU program completed the transfer of its in-country taff arid program to tie national agricultural research institution of Burkina Faso (IBRAZ) FSU also worked with the IFAD supported SAFGRAD farming systems personnel aho backstop the national farming systems programs in Butkina Faso and Benin Through regional symshyposia and consultation the methodology and results were made available to other SAFOPAD countries as well Details of the program transfer and field staff training component of objective 5 are reported in the 1985 FSU Annual Report (Nagy and Ohm 1986)
CHAPTER III
FARMING SYSTEMS METHODOLOGY IN THE WEST AFRICAN SEMI-ARID TROPICS (WASAT)
Introduction
The basic concept of farming systems research is that the research system could function more efficiently if more information on the conshystraints which prevent farmers from improving their well-being was obtained at an earlier stage of the research development process than is common in the developing countries Farm-level constraints can be identified with both surveys and on-farm trials A further extension is to supplement the on-farm trials with whole-farm modeling This chapter will be concerned with all three approaches
In developed countries the two-way linkages of communication between farmers and agricultural scientists function better than in the WASAT due to higher educational levels of the farmers better agricultural informashytion systems and financial mechanisms in developed countries which reward the agricultural research establishments and individual scientists for their contributions to resolving farm-level production problems Farming systems esearch can provide an alternative communication linkage which does not require advancements in general education or major changes in the institutional orientation of national research systems
The clientele of Farming Systems Research will depend upon the instishytutional setting and the stage of development of the technology In the initial phases of the agricultural development process as in the WASAT the most important directional flow of information is to the researchers for several reasons First farming systems even in low input agriculshyture are very complex with many systems interactions Farmers have multiple objectives and constraints and these can vary in importance and evolve over time and even in response to the conditions of the production season (Norman 1982)
Agricultural scientists in developing countries often underinvest in understanding these complex systems and farmers objectives before beginshyning research Further they may not adequately respond to knowledge which is available When farmers do not adopt the technologies produced on the experiment station and recommended to them the initial reaction of agricultural scientists in developing countries is often that the problem of non-adoption is with the farmers the extension service or national economic policies rather than with the technologies themselves
Technology development requires a thorough understanding of the scienshytific concepts applied on the experiment station plus a multi-disciplinary approach to understanding the complexity of the farmers environment farmshying systems and decision-making process The most fundamental difference between the experiment station and farmers fields is the necessary shift
10
from component parts of new technologies as produced on the experiment station to systems with impor ant interactions such as are characteristic of farmers production systems
Farming Systems Research helps to overcome these differences by nashybling agricultural scientists to improve their understanding of the comshyplexity of the farmers systems and thereby become more efficient at idenshytifying and resolving the research problems involved in overcoming farmers constraints Two desired final products are a more efficient agricultural research system and an increase in mutual comprehension between farmers and researchers Another product is the facilitation of adoption of new sysshytems of agricultural technology so that these systems can be more rapidly incorporated into the testing and diffusion program of the extension servshyice
The principal stages in farming systems research can be identified by responding to the following questions
a) What do you do first to describe the farmers production systems How much description is enough
b) How do you plan and organize on-farm trials When do you do it What are the differences between experiment station and on-farm trials
c) How do you analyze and supplement the data coming out of the onshyfarm trials What are the relevant questions to be answered about new technology performance on farms
d) At some point in technology development outside factors (exogenous variables) such as economic policy or the further development of input production or distribution capacity such as a fertilizer marketing system improved credit or a seed industry may be constraining technology introduction How does FSR set up its own boundaries while still maximizing its effectiveness in providing relevant information to facilitate the production of new technologies
e) Who should do the farming systems research Presently International Agricultural Research Centers spend an estimated 10 to 15 million dollars annually on FSR (Anderson and Dillon 1985 p 1)
The following sections of the paper will attempt to address these speshycific questions on farming systems methodology Clearly there will be some biases from the experiences of the Farming Systems Unit in Burkina Faso and the otber FSR experiences of the authors These eperiences will be utilized as illustrations
11
Describing Farmers Environments Production Systems and Objectives The Baseline Study Stage
If the principal objective of tarming systems research is to improve the understanding of agricultural scientists about farm-level conditions then this data-collection or description process must begin with them They help to define the research problems and objectives of the fieldwork and to understand the particular target group of farmers Agricultural scientists need to be involved in farm-level research design in order to provide more information and to evaluate the accuracy of their hypotheses about farmer conditions and decision-making
The utilization of baseline studies for developing research priorities requires the identification and ranking of the principle conshystraints to increased output of the commodities studied This is not a simple process since there will be a strong bias from the individual disshyciplines of the researchers in the definition of the farm-level constraints Breeders will identify varietal characteristics for overcomshying specific yield constraints pathologists diseases economists will point out particular policies or markets which reduce the profitability of specific new technologies Hence a multi-disciplinary approach to the definition of constraints will be necessary from the beginning of the research design process Some investment by researchers in the tnderstandshying of other disciplines will also be necessary
Useful baseline research has included the economic quantification of production losses from various insects and diseases This information helped confirm the research strategies of resistance breeding for field beans at CIAT (Sanders 1984 Sanders and Lynam 1982) Similarly in Burkina Faso the initial anthropological descriptions of faring systems (M Saunders 1980) and the economic analysis of farmers objectives and seasonal labor constraints helped provide orientation for agricultural researchers in the farm trials (Lang et al 1984)
An important issue within this baseline stage is that it is extremely easy to overinvest in data collection and descriptive surveys Moreover much of the literature on farming systems puts an excessive emphasis on baseline data collection so that the research problem identification hyposhytheses analytical methodologies and even literature reviews are neglected The frequent consequence is the amassing of large quantities of data which are only partially analyzed Even with analysis much of the data collection traditionally undertaken at this stage of FSR has resulted in interesting descriptions of little relevance to researchers in reshydefining their research priorities
There are several methods for avoiding the pitfalls of random and largely irrelevant data collection The first is an extension of a method presently utilized by many agricultural scientists to identify for themshyselves the important constraints in farmers fields This involves their going into the field to see farm-level problems in their disciplinary
12
3 area A simple extension is to make these field trips multi-disciplinary and to involve some pre-trip discussion and mutual definition of field objectives If farm-level interviewing remains unstructured the datashyamassing problem can be avoided Multi-disciplinary collaboration is begun and can bd continued in the development of a report synthesizing the field observations Often these initial trips or sondeos have led to more formal multi-disciplinary questionnaire development and surveying in a second stage Clearly with the involvement of several disciplines the demand for data can increase exponentially
To more rapidly interest the agricultural scientists a different technique is suggested At any given time agricultural scientists genershyally have their own ideas of what will work on farmers fields These ideas can come directly from their own experiments from observations of farmers in other regions or from Vhe literature The suggestion here is to move rapidly into on-farm trials This will then give a defined frameshywork for supplementing on-farm trials with diagnostic surveys which have well-defined objectives ie to better evaluate specific socio-economic issues involved in introducing these new technologies tested on the farmshyers fields into the farmers production system
In these baseline surveys of the functioning of the farm and household systems at the beginning of an FSR project the anthropologists and sociologists have often made outstanding contributions to our understanding (M Saunders 1980 Reeves and Frankenberger 1982) When these surveys by the social scientists have been integrated with the research objectives of agricultural scientists their utility has been further increased It is recommended that a farming systems project begin with baseline surveys of farm and household conditions in each major target area preferably undershytaken by an anthropologist (also see Simmonds 1984 p 74) These baseshyline studies and a commencement of on-farm trials in the first production season are suggested as the appropriate way to begin farming systems reshysearch in the WASAT
The principal emphasis here is on moving rapidly to on-farm trials with supplementary analysis to provide understanding of the potential role of the new technologies in the whole farm system The methodology for this type of evaluation will be explained in detail in the fourth section on Evaluation As this type of on-farm testing and modeling analysis is being undertaken further diagnostic surveys are often useful to complement the principal investigation of the on-farm trials and farm modeling An exshyample in the Burkina Faso FSU program after three to five years of on-farm testing in different villages was a survey to evaluate adoption by parshyticipant and non-participant farmers of the new technologies tested
Designing and Implementing On-Farm Trials
There are two central issues in the implementation of on-farm trials First multi-disciplinary collaboratin is essential especially between agricultural scienmtists and economists Secondly the research objectives
13
of the experiment station and on-farm trials are different hence the organization design and arnalysis of the on-farm trials are different from those on the experiment station
True multi-disciplinary collaboration is not easy since each discishypline has its body of literature its journals certain statistical methods customarily dominated by its practitioners and even its philosophical attitudes about research and the process of agricultural development Moreover universities and many agricultural research institutions are organized by discipline Promotions in universities are linked to publicashytions in the high prestige journals of individual disciplines
To overcome these barriers between disciplines strong institutional support and continued personal relationships are both required There is a tendency in farming systems projects to give control of the on-farm trials to either the biological or the social scientists or to compartmentalize their efforts For example the agricultural scientists might manage the researcher-managed on-farm trials and the economists the farmer-managed trials Or the agricultural scientist might ask the economists help in interpreting data without collaborating with himher on field research planning and design
The most basic differences between agricultural scientists and econoshymists are in their treatment of data (Collinson 1981 p 442) Agriculshytural scientists are trained to be extremely careful in data generation to verify results over a number of years and to utilize variations of analyshysis of variance to analyze the significance of yield differences However policymakers generally need new technology recommendations in short time periods and farmers are more interested in the profitability and fit into their operati s of one or two new systems of production than in the idenshytification of the level of significance of the treatments and their interactions
Economists with simple modeling and synthetic estimates (judgements of agricultural scientsts) can help fill the gap between the public policymakers and the farmers demands for new technology information and the output from agricultural scientists Some knowledge of the agriculshytural sciences and some simple modeling are the necessary components of the economists contribution The primary requisite for successful interdisshyciplinary collaboration is the desire of the team to respond rapidly to real world problems of technology evaluation even if the data utilized are preliminary and some of them are synthetic Preliminary results can always be refined and improved with further experiments andor data collection and analysis
One important contribution of Farming Systems Research has been to demonstrate the strategic importance of on-farm testing of new technologies as a critical component of the agricultural research process (for an estishymate of the rate of return to this research see Martinez and Arauz 1984) The primary unit in new technology production is the experiment station
14
However once the component parts of new technologies have been tested on the experiment station they can be combined into packages and tested under a wide range of farming conditions (Figure 3) The synergistic or multishyplicative (rather than additive) impact of combining several factors of production is well kriown in the agricultural sciences The individual factors are identified and measured on the experiment station In the onshyfarm trials combinations of factors are evaluated to identify new systemsof production that are profitable and fit into farmers production systems
On the experiment station non-treatment inputs are held at fixed but generally high levels so that they do not affect the performance of the treatment input(s) Usually the potential for static (increased variance) in the response of the treatment input(s) is reduced by the high levels of utilization of other inputs Experiment station trials tend to study one or sometimes two factors in considerable detail Experiment stations are usually selected in the best agricultural regions and over time due to different cultural practices the agricultural conditions become substanshytially different from those on farmers fields (Sanders and Lynam 1982 Byerlce Collinson et al 1981)
Once the more basic experiments have been undertaken on the station and before recommendations are made farm-level testing is necessary If the technology performance depends upon soil climate insect or disease incidence the farm trials can help identify these factors and estimate the economic impact of overcoming the specific constraint at different levels of its incidence For example fertilizers will have a larger impact in low soil fertility regions and a disease resistant variety will be more impressive where the disease occurs A water retention technique such as tied ridges wouli be expected to work better in the heavier soils In sandier soils the ridges will be more rapidly destroyed by wind or water Moreover the on-farm trials provide a crude estimate of the relative importance of the specific constraints on the farmers fields during the production period evaluated
One method for analyzing these betwcen-farm differences in new techshynology puiformance in greater detail is to utilize a large number of farms for the farm-level trials Repetitions are often made by increasing the number of farms rather than includi ig repetitions on each farm site (DeDatta et al 1978 Sanders and Lynam 1982) One implication of this design is that variance within farms cannot he separated Another is that within any constrained planting zeason a larger number of farms can be included
Another way to handle the between-farm variation in technology perforshymance is to stratify the environments in which the technology is evaluated
15
Experiment Station On-Farm Trials
More Basic Research More Applied Research
Component Research Systems or Package Research
Variance from Non-Treatment Analyze Variance from Non-Factors Minimized Treatment Factors
Repetitions on Same Experiment Replications Across Farms
New Technologies Originate Hrre New Technologies Evaluated Here Primary Activity Secondary Activity
Emphasis on Feedback of Information to Researchers in the Experiment Station
Based Upon Technology Performance on Farms--Request Technology Modifications from the Experiment Station
To Extension Service for Further Testing and Dissemination
Figure 3 Stages of the research process
SOURCE Adapted from Sanders and Lynam 1982 p 99
16
Soil types rainfall regimes or even farmer characteristics can be utilshyized to define research domains However the performance of many new technologies under different farm-level conditions is often a stochastic event The incidence of diseases and insects is unknown at planting time so there is no way to define research domains for these problems If there is a large sample the data carn be stratified after the trials Since it is often difficult in practice to minimize the on-farm performance variashytions of new technologies by defining research (or recommendation) domains with homogeneous characteristics it is frequently necessary to employlarger sample sizes ie more on-farm trials The number of trials necessary will also depend upon the types of technologies evaluated
In the initial years of on-farm testing (early and mid-70s)economists and other social scientists frequently administered the trials Over time agricultural scientists have generally taken over the implemenshytation of these trials This transition has improved trial quality since agricultural scientists are trained for this activity However the failure to adequately specify the objectives of on-farm testing can lead to trials which are only replicas of experiment centtation trials
With the above detailed examination of the on-farm methodologies it is easy to forget that the origin of new technologies is the experimentstation This is the primary unit in the technology development processThe on-farm testing performs an important evaluation function in the reshysearch production process but it is secondary to the primary organ of agricultural research the experiment station Moreover the quality of the on-farm trials will depond upon the input from the agriculturalscientist In the design and the evaluation phases the interdisciplinary input especially fcom econiomists will be critical
The integration of the on-farm and station-based research and their links to diagnostic surveys of the farmers in the target regions and to the operational research utilizing the data resulting from the on-farm trials are [llustrated in Figure 4 As mentioned previously both the diagnostic surveys and the evaluation of on-farm trials have important roles and should function simultaneously The operational research for the evaluashytion of these on-farm triaLs will be considered in the next section
Evaluation of On-Farm Technology Performance
The on-farm trials combine several factors or component parts preshyviously evaluated on he experiment station into different systems or packages Isolating each factor aid its interactions in these trials freshyquently becomes unmanageable Beets (1982) cites an IRRI cropping systemexperiment with 750 possible treatment combinations However 7 the princishypal concern of the on-farm trials is to identify combinationswhich are profitable of factorsand fit into the farmers systems of produccion
17
Target group farmers of a recommendation
domain in a Vagion
Survey diagnosis of farmer priorities resource and environment problems and development opportunities
Identification ofunsolved technical problems and possible new practices and materials relevant to farmers development opportunities
On-farm adaptive research
Operational research for identification and evaluation of materials and techniques
offering potential for problemsolution and the exploitation
of opportunities
Station-based technical
On-farm testing via experiments on apparentl relevant materials and techniques under farmers conditions
Use of existing body of knowledge of materials and techniques suitable for the climate and soils of the ion
Component research usingcommodity and disciplinary
research solvingpriority technical problems
and investigating possible new materials and practices
Figure 4 Schematic view of farming systems research method (after Collinson 1982)
18
The treatments of the on-farm trials representing different systems pass through three phases of evaluation (Figure 5) The first phase is identical to the experiment-station analysis some variation of analysis of variance (ANOVA) It determines whether under farmers conditions there are significant yield differences with the new technologies as comparedwith the treatment representing traditional farmers practices
However technology needs to move beyond yield differences to be acceptable to farmers With a minimal increase in data requirements from the local environment the yield data from the treatments are converted into gross and then net revenue utilizing product prices and input costs This simple budgeting answers the second question in the flowchart of Figure 5 Is the new technology more profitable than farmers traditional practices
Mention should be made here of two frequently cited problems with simple budgeting (a) price variation over time and within the production season and (b) costing of non-traded inputs such as land and family labor Product prices can vary substantially within a year especially with the customary post-harvest price collapse and between years in regions with substantial climatic fluctuations and limited governmental role in pricestabilization Moreover input costs will depend upon government subsidies and the real input costs to the farmer will also depend upon the availability of an input such as fertilizer at the right place and the right time Questions about the appropriate prices and costs to be utilshyized in the evaluation are valid concerns which need to be dealt with in the economic analysis of new technology
Price variability and the effects of government policy and market development mean that profitability is a complicated decision which can be influenced by the farmers marketing strategies and by macro factors outshyside the farmers control Nevertheless farmers need to be able to devise some strategy to make a profit from a new technology Sensitivity analysiswhich varies the prices and costs over the relevant range can be utilized to respond to this problem The simple budgeting analysis of on-farm trials is usually a mean or median estimate The variation in yield pershyformance and prices received between farms is a useful complement to this measure
Some of the relevant inputs that neeJ to be costed for budgetinganalysis may not have a market price In the WASAT family labor duringcertain periods for performing specific cultural operations such as the first weeding has a very high implicit value and may even be constrainingcertain types of output expansion Mathematical programming models take into account the implicit value of the inputs and put a cost on them (shadow price) whereas budgeting treatments make some arbitrary assumpshytions about the labor market Land rental depreciation of the capitalinput and management costs are also difficult to estimate and are
19
Trial New farm results trials
(1)
Are there Yes significant Increases No
Infarm yields with the new technologytech~(noloy
(2) farms be
Ysmore
Is thenwtechnology
profitable than
farmers practices~(multiple
Noaffecting
stratified bycharacteristics
the successful
performance of the newregres-
Yes
sion cluster analysis)
(3)
Yes new technology N Newfit into the No [experiments
farmers production system(programming marketing)
extension service Analysis and diagnosisL
for further testing feedback for andor technology redesign
extension
FLgure 5 Flow Chart for New Technology Evaluation in Farin Trials
Source Sanders and Lynam 1982 p 100
In any of the three stages of evaluation a new technology treatment may not pass the criteria based upon mean values Then astratification of farms is attempted upon an a priori basis For example the performance of a fertilizer technology would beInfluenced by the soil types Ifthere were two types of soils and there was a return to fertilization on one and not the other thenstratification into these two groups would be undertaken For the subgroup of farms where the fertilizer technology waseffective the three stages of evaluation would commence again The subgroup where fertilization was not effective would raiseresearch questions for analysis and diagnosis as Indicated in the above flowchart
20
often omitted in the simple or partial budgeting In spite of the difshyficulties of costing some inputs and the price variation profitability comparisons with sensitivity analysis give substantially more information than yield comparisons
Nevertheless even profitability is not a sufficient criteria for farmer acceptance A new system may be profitable but may require more labor at a peak period than the farmer can release from his other operashytions or the new activity may have much higher capital requirements than the farmer can obtain The third question (Figure 5) is whether the techshynology fits into the farmers production system Whereas simple budgeting can indicate that one activity is more profitable than another mathematishycal programming takes into account all other present and potentialactivities and the available on-farm and off-farm resources Utilizing this technique and the above information an estimate of the extent of potential adoption of a new technology on a representative farm can be made Moreover the farm-level constraints to the further adnption of more profitable nctivities can be identified Clearly the value of this modelshying will depend upon the researchers understanding of the farming systpmand his ability to simplify the model to the essential elements
These mathematical programming whole-farm modeling techniques have been operationalized at the farm level for approximately twenty years so their practical value in assisting public and farmer decision-making in developed countries has been repeatedly demonstrated (Doster et al 1981 McCarl 1982) One difficulty in the implementation of this technique in developing countries has been the computer requirement however the rapid diffusion of micro computers to the developing countries is resolving this problem even in the WASAT Nevertheless there is a necessary time investshyment involved in training the technicians economists and agricultural scientists to implement the se models and to interpret the results
Mathematical programming forces researchers to focus their data colshylection on the systems problems of production in a whole-farm context (forreviews and applications see Anderson et al 1985 Ghodake and Hardakef 1981 Roth et al 1986) Simple technical coefficients representing the relationships between inputs and outputs and the resources available to the farmer are the relevant data sets for evaluation of profitability and the fit of the new technologies into the farmers systems of productionAdjustments in the modeling can be made for more complicated farmer beshyhaviors than profit maximization Risk avoidance can be explicitlyincluded in the analysis with programming Other constraints imposed byeconomic and technical factors can frequently be included
Another step in technology evaluation could be the analysis of the intra- and inter-household effects (see McKee 1984 Nagy Ohm and Sawadogo 1986) There has been much concern recently with the role of women in farm production and consumption analysis more specific considerashytion of their roles in land use investment and consumption decisions are warranted Moreover specific technologies could have equity effects on
21
different types o6 farms and policymakers are often concerned with these potential outcomes
Many other considerations could also be raised such as environmental concerns or the cultural trauma often associated with economic or institushytional change However the emphasis of this paper is responding to the three questions in the flow diagram of Figure 5 Positive answers to these questions have been associated with farmer adoption of new technologies in both Colombia (Sanders and Lynam 1982 p 104) and Burkina Faso (Sanders et al 1985 pp 24-28) thus providing support for the evaluation criteria presented here These evaluation criteria as reflected in the three questions of Figure 5 appear to be logical simple and powerful for undertaking farm-level evaluation of new technologies
Micro vs Macro Approaches to Farming Systems Research
The farming system fits into and is affected by many larger systems Agricultural policy the availability of inputs and the functioning of the product markets all affect farm-level decisions about new technologies and farm-level planning for the development of new technologies
The most conservative approach in on-farm technology development is to assume that all these systems are not evolving and to attempt to develop new farming systems for the present levels of development in the other systems In the WASAT this orientation would precipitate a search for minimum input cost systems such as
a) new varieties used without chemical inputs such as inorganic fertilizer
b) higher densities c) different planting dates d) different rotations e) more systematic use of multiple cropping f) more utilization of on-farm inputs such as mulch and manure
These types of marginal changes are attempts to obtain small yield increments utilizing either available resources on the farm or an input such as a new variety which requires a minimal cash expenditure Oneshyinput changes of available resources such as planting dates and rotations are easy for farmers to implement and observe and many farmers carry on small experiments of this type The observation that farmers are not utilizing these adjustments appears to be good evidence that there are technical reasons for them not to utilize them G~ferally the yield effects of the small adjustments ate either very small or under certain natural condit ns they precipitate other problems irn the cropping system For example in Colombia higher field bean densities significantly inshycreased disease incidence even with spraying (CIAT 1979 p 92)
In the last decade the French international agricultural research institute (IRAT) has been joined by three other institutes (CIMMYT
22
ICRISAT and IITA) in the WASAT Their principal research activity has been the development of new food crop varieties especially cereals Yet few cereal varieties have been successful enough to displace local cultivars Matlon (1985) estimated that the new cereal varieties presently occupy less than 5 of the WASAT crop area In our view new varieties unaccompanied by other inputs belong in this group of marginal changes which have had little impact Why Much of the WASAT is characterized by inadequate and irregular rainfall and low fertility soils These are difficult agricultural conditions for one-inpit changes Therefore it appears that WASAT farmers will neei to itilize higher levels oflyurchased inputs and to take more risks in order t) increase their incomes
Presently the level of purchased input utilization in the WASAT especially chemical inputs is extremely low The eight Sahelian countries have the lowest chemical fertilizer consumption in the world at less than 3 kgha on crops Animal traction is still in the introductory stage at less than 15 of the farmers in the WASAr (Matlon 1985) Moreover only a smail portion of the cereals are marketed (less than 10 in FSU sample villages on the Central Plateau in Burkina Faso) Only 3 of the cropland in the eight Sahelian countries is irrigated (Matlon 1983) With these low levels of input use and infrastructure it does not appear to be approshypriate to develop new technologies for high levels of input use However it is important to make improvements in the marketing systems so that modshyerate input levels can be utilized and there will be increased marketing of the cereals
Marginal changes such as the minimal input utilization changes disshycussed previously are not expected to be sufficient to interest farmers or to lead to sustained yield increases Moderate input levels including chemical inputs are expected to be necessary to obtain significant yield increases which fit economically into the farmers production systems (see Chapter V for specific details on chemical fertilizer) Hence as new technologies are being developed and implemented over time input and proshyduct marketing institutions must also evolve The development of these markets may require governmental support and further research The effishyciency of the para-statal product marketing agencies and the role of prishyvate and public institutions in input markets are two primary issues of concern in the present agricultural development literature on Sub-Saharan Africa
What role should FSR projects have in influencing agricultural policy and other macro issues Historically there has been an urban bias in agricultural policies in most WASAT countries To keep food prices low for urban consumers WASAT governments have frequently intervened via parashystatal marketing organizations To compensate farmers for the low product prices these same governments often have provided input subsidies to farmshyers Presently the World Bank and US AID hTje been pressuring WASAT governments to eliminate these input subsidies At least in the short run this will reduce the profitability of agriculture discourage investshyment in agriculture and delay technology adoption Part of the evaluation
23
of new technologies by the FSR program should include some sensitivity analysis to estimate the farm-level effects of various agricultural polishycies including the elimination of input subsidies
In the recent summarv of FSR for the World Bank (Simmonds 1984) a distinction was drawn betweei modifications to present farming systems and entirely new systems of production Improved agronomy with moderate levels of inputs and ultimately introducing new varieties for these improved systems would be in the first category (and see Chapter V for concrete examples) However many of the poorer more marginal environments in the WASAT ultimately will need to gradually withdraw from crop production and move into grazing systems or forestry Crop farming in the WASAT migrated further north after the high rainfall period of the fifties As yield increases are attained in those regions of rainfed aiculture with more potential and in the river valleys and irrigated areas some present crop areas can be returned to more extensive agricultural systems Farming systems research will need to make some decisions about the regions with the most agricultural potential For those truly marginal regions more comprehensive systems changes may be necessary than are customarily evaluated in farming systems research
r-tional policy factors and national agricultural development planshyning cannot be ignored in FSR Many of these macro factors and evolving changes need to be explicitly incorporated into the analysis of which technologies and regions are appropriate for evaluation Nevertheless it is recommended that modeling concentrate on the farm level Without much better micro data and analysis than is presently available in most developshying countries extending farm models to sector analysis seems to be only a training device for economists rather than a useful exercise to enlighten agricultural development planners As the micro-modeling foundation is improved in the next five to ten years the agricultural sector models will be able to give a more useful input into agricultural policy formulation in the WASAT countries
Which agencies should undertake the on-farm testing
FSR presently takes five to ten percent of the budgets of several IARCs (Simmonds 1984 pp 67 68) and the IARCs have generally taken a leadership role in field application of on-farm testing The long-run frequently stated objective of the IARCs is to turn this activity over to the national agricultural research systems (NARC) The rationale is that the on-farm trials give very location-specific results The IARCs can develop methodologies and demonstrate the utilization of new research activities to the NARCs but ultimately larger numbers of on-farm trials in many regions will need to be undertaken in developing countries to evaluate the diverse technologies being produced in the IARCs and NARCs Not only does the scale of this testing make it infeasible for the IARCs to undertake all of it themselves but also much of the testing will be outside the commodity mandates of the individual IARCs
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The institutional placement of on-farm testing depends upon the relative importance of the two clienteles for the products of the research at a given stage of technology development These two potential clienteles are the extension seryjce and the agricultural researchers On-farm trials which are successful give important information to the extension service and to those public officials involved with agricultural policy On-farm trials which are not successful give feedback on farm-level problems with the technologies to researchers at the experiment stations in both the national and international centers
If the primary emphasis of the on-farm trials needs to be on feedshyback then there are two problems with the present location of most farming systems research in the IARCs First several of the centers put the principal emphasis of their on-farm trials on providing information for the NARCs and the extension services (Simmonds 1985 pp 92-97) Presently there is less concern with feedback from the on-farm trials to IARC reshysearchers on the relevance and problems of the technologies they are developing Organizationally it appears to be very difficult for a divishysion of one institution to ierve for very long as an effective critic of its own activities
Secondly most of the IARCs Pre crop-breeding institutions including CIMMYT IRRI CIAT ICRISAT ICARDA and IITA Two of these centers CIMMYT and IRRI have been very successful in producing new varieties for those environments with adequate assured water availability and moderate to high levels of input utilization However in most of the harsher environments including the WASAT where these conditions are not met improvements in agronomy to attain moderate purchased input levels may need to precede the introduction of new varieties On-farm testing undertaken or financed by the IARCs tends to concentrate on the varietal effect since that is their mandate In these harsher environments institutions other than the IARCs (or even the NARCs which receive IARC assistance of new germ plasm) may need to do the on-farm testing
This on-farm testing in harsher climatic regions such as the WASAT would concentrate first on identifying agronomic improvements ie the combination of measures to improve water retention and soil fertility At a later stage the IARCs and NARCs could develop new varieties for these improved (but not high input) production systems The main points here are that at least in the WASAT stage of agricultural development the princishypal focus of on-farm testing will need to be on feedback to the research station and the principal focus of research on agronomic improvements
On-farm testing can be considered either as the last stage of the agricultural research process befcre passing the innovation on to the Extension Service or the first stage of the Extension process before demonstration trials and active diffusion measures Clearly there needs to be interaction between the NARC and the Extension Service consisting of the regular exchange of information and even planning of the on-farm trials If there is sufficient exchange of information and collaboration
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in on-farm trial design the institutional location of these trialswill be less important
In summary on-farm trials will need to be undertaken by most agencies involved in agricultural experimentation in the WASAT Communication barriErs are sufficiently large between scientists and farmers that this type of intermediate activity is expected to be necessary for several decades since the IARCs NARCs and other agencies apparently need this source of feedback on the performance of their technologies Since we have been stressing the importance of feedback all through this chapter we argue that the on-farm trials should be located in the research rather than the extension entity so that feedback results are more readily acceptable at the experiment station
As on-farm trials move into the NARCs and are financed by their own internal financial resources lower ccst methods for conducting on-farm trials must be sought These trials tend to be very intensive in their use of highly qualified scientific manpower for planning and evaluation Their execution requires good logistic support and training for a large number of field workers It would appear that in the WASAT external financing and external scientific manpower will be necessary for some time to continue high levels of on-farm testing
Conclusions
Defining farmers constraints to increasing agricultural production is a complicated task best illustrated by example In the conclusions to this report (Chapter VI) we return to this problem to illustrate the conshytribution of the Purdue farming systems project to constraint identification in the WASAT Meanwhile the survey process can be divided into an initial or baseline study which describes the farmers production and household systems and supplementary or diagnostic surveys which invesshytigate particular research areas as they arise For the baseline study the in-depth village-household production and consumption analyses freshyquently undertaken by anthropologists and sociologists seem especially relevant to an understanding of the farming systems in the areas specifishycally targeted for further research activity during the on-farm stage of FSR Supplementary diagnostic 3urveys can then be undertaken in response to specific objectives of th farm-level work especially the on-farm testing of new technclogies These will often be within the disciplinary area of agricultural economists In the modeling stage of the evaluation process there will frequently be a need for supplementary farm business or household information
One primary recommendation here is that the on-farm testing phase of the FSR begin in the first production season Agricultural scientists will generally have a series of recommendations of component parts for farm testing Putting these individual factors together into technology packages and testing them under farmers conditions will help to further develop their understanding of farmers objectives and systems The
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agricultural scientists will generally have much more interest in field experiments than in the diagnostic surveys In this initial stage of onshyfarm testing the principal direction of information flow will be feedback to the researchers as the packages are expected to have either technical or economic prulblems impeding their acceptance by farmers
Multi-disciplinary collaboration especially between the agricultural scientists and economists is essential for the on-farm testing Agriculshytural scientists know well the mechanics of the testing process Econoshymists understand the farmers objectives Both need to collaborate to understand the interactions and complexities of farmers systems of proshyduction There should be collaboration in research design to avoid replishycating experiment station trials and to obtain the necessary data for economic analysis
On the farm the treatments are generally different systems of production rather than individual factors The analysis proceeds from a statistical analysis of the significance of yield differences to economic concerns with profitability and the fit into the farmers systems of proshyduction The comparison between treatments analyzes the potential benefits to the farmers from new technology adoption since the control is a proxy for the farmers system of production The simplest economic analysis is the evaluation of profitability using partial budgets However this type of analysis is not as simple as it appears because of price variation and the difficulty of attiibutinrg prices to some production factors Generally an attempt is made to overcome these budgeting problems with sensitivity analysis
The final step in the evaluation is to consider the potential fit of the activity irto the farmers systems of production with mathematical proshygramming This whole f=crm analysis simulates the farmers decision-making process by including information on all present and potential activities using the data on on-farm and off-farm resource availabilities New sysshytems of production that pass through all three stages of this evaluation are expected to be adopted by farmers There is some adoption evidence from both Colombia and Burkina Faso supporting the above assertion
In the harsh envirarunent of the WASAT given the very low utilization of purchased inputs at present marginal agronomic changes such as density timing or even varietal change are expected to have little or even negashytive impact Larger systems changes involving technologies which simultaneously augment water conservation and soil fertility are hypothesized as necessary in order to raise yields sufficiently so that these new systems not only yield more than farmers practices on their own fields but also are profitable and fit into farmers production systems
National economic and agricultural policies can have a large impact on technology evaluation and even the planning of FSR Policymakers need to be concerned with creating an environment in which farmers can make money from adopting new technologies In the short run in the WASAT the
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elimination of input subsidies especially if ceilings are retained for product prices will make it more difficult for farmers to profit from new technology adoption By evaluating the impact of different agricultural and economic policies on the farm-level profitability and potential adopshytion of new technologies the FSR program may be able to help influence governmental policy formation
Another impact of national policy is on agricultural development planning Frequently FSR programs are designed for marginal agricultural areas Alternatives to developing technologies for these regions may be public health investments in river valleys and yield-improving strategies in the dryland regions with better agricultural resources If yields can be sufficiently improved for the higher resource regions some shifting into livestock or even forestry may be appropriate land-use decision for the more marginal agricultural areas For these types of land-use changes government would need to finance the human resettlement costs Change in agricultural activities of this magnitude are not generally included in FSR Hence Simmonds (1984 p 121) developed a new term for it New Farming Systems Develonment (NFSD)
In the WASAT a prerequisite to new variety development appears to be the simultaneous utilization of moderate input levels to improve water retention and soil fertility Once these agronomic improvements are in place new variety introduction is expected to have more potential for sucshycess than at the present time Some of the on-farm trials in the WASAT may need to be underjgken by agencies whose principal activity is not new variety development
The on-farm testing can be either the final step in the research proshycess of the NARC IARC or other research institution or the fi t step in the Extension Service before demonstration trials or other disL mination activities The institutional location should depend upon whether the prishymary product is feedback on technology improvement to experiment station researchers or feedforward of technologies to be disseminated by the Extension Service Since the process of feedback to researchers is conshysidered to be the most important objective of on-farm testing in the early stages of agricultural technology development in the WASAT our institushytional preference for the location of these trials is with the national agricultural research centers (NARCs) rather than the national extension service The scientists in the on-farm trials will know how to convince the scientists on the experiment station of the validity of their results Some of them may even fulfill algual role working on both the experiment station and the on-farm trials As more technology is validated in the on-farm trials and can move on to the Extension Service the returns to investments in the institutional ties between the NARCs and the Extension Service will be increased
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FOOTNOTES
This type of infrmation flow is customarily referred to as feedback
Farming Systems and other research programs also attempt to provideinformation on new technologies to farmers and extension agents Anyagricultural research program ult imately needs to have an impact on the well-being of farmers in order to survive Since the economic imporshytance of this directional flow of information to farmers is obvious we consider it to be more importlant to stress here the importance of the feedback to researchers so that they are more effective in doing their job ie producing new technologies
2 Dillon (1976 pp 6-7) contrasts philosophic differences of scientific
investigation into two approaches Reduc t ionism implied reducingphenomena to their more basic (and hopefully independent) parts analyzshying these parts as independent entities to explain their behavior and then aggregating these explanations as an explanation of the phenomenon under study Reductionism abetted and fostered the proliferation of specialized deafness and tunnel vision in form of independentthe scienshytific disciplines
Since the fifties reductionism has been increasingly seen as an inadequate basis for science to either understand or to manipulate and control its environment An alternative approach is the systems or holistic approach This is a multi-disciplinary approach in which explanation then proceeds in terms of the role or function of the part in the Larger system(s)
Clearly heshe will be exposed to all the other types of constraints but disciplinary blinders often exist especially for those involved in their own research programs
4 A recent international agricultural research center meeting for the planniig of on-farm trials in Africa concluded that the initial descripshytion and diagnostic activity of the FSR should be rapidly implemented so that a crop season for experimentation is not lost (unpublished summaryof meeting notes ILRAD Oct 1984) Diagnosticsurvey activities and farm-level experimentation can continue simultaneously In fact the farm-level experimentation will require additional diagnosticsurvey activities to evaluate the Economic potential of the new technology
The diagnostic surveys of economists have not been nearly as useful for a comprehensive understanding of the farming and household systems as those of the anthropologists Howev-r the utility of the economist on multi-disciplinary teams to undertake and evaluate on-farm trials has been repeatedly demonstrated and is now widely if not universally acshycepted (Simmonds 1984 pp 24 71-75 125) The other social scienshytists have not yet demonstrated their capacity to work on these types of teams They appear to be in the position of defining their role a position similar to that of the economists about a decade earlier
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6 Generally soil fertility is higher on the experiment station and the
incidence of anddiseases insects is greater than on the surrounding farms due to the repeated intensive cultivation of the same crops Howshyever on the experiment station the high levels of non-treatment inputs such as agricultural chemicals can reduce the levels of insects disshyeases and weeds to levels even lower than on the farmers fields For farmers these levels of chemical control are often not profitable
Occasionally the impact of one or two components will be estimated as with fertilization and tied ridges (a water-conservation technique) alone and in combination in the Burkina Faso FSU program
8 If the weeding is not done opportunely there can often be a yield
decline Moreover all farms in a given region will be performing these types of operations at approximately the same time Hence it will be very difficult for farmers to hire temporary labor away from their famshyily operations So the implicit value or productivity of the family labor becomes very high in these particular tasks at certain critical times
9 A more comprehensive agricultural policy analysis would include the macro effect of new technology introduction on prices as is done in agriculture sector models But because so many other structural changes are occurring at the same time this price effect is not considered to be very important at least in the initial stages of technology development
10 Those advocating these types of planting density date or other culshy
tural system change generally are expecting yield increases of only 10 to 20 This type of yield increase is very difficult for the farmer to see and could easily disappear as on-farm trials change from researcher to farmer management New agronomic system changes are expected to take time for farmers to master if a series of component part changes are implied andor timeliness of the relevant operations is also important Hence the yield differences of these minimal changes even if they truly exist will often disappear in the learning-by-doing effect
11 Once farmers are utilizing moderate purchased input levels it will be
very important to systematically evaluate the im-pact of these marginal changes especially new varieties and more intensive cropping systems
12 By removing all input subsidies and other price distortions or intervenshy
tions governments and international agencies can calculate the real resource cost of various alternative policies and ascertain their comshyparative advantage in international production This analysis assumes that the re are no differences between private and public benefits or between private and social costs Hence there are no externalities in the system
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Removing these price and cost distortions will facilitate economic calculations and in the long run welfare gains are expected In the short run the elimination of input subsidies is expected to sharply slow down the agricultural developmenc process and to put upward presshysure on agricultural product prices and the demand for agricultural import substitutes Developed country exporters of agricultural proshyducts would be the principal beneficiaries of higher agricultural import levels in the developing countries
13 In the river valleys and irrigated regions human health constraints may be the principal factor limiting agricultural development River blindshyness has been a serious problem in many of the Burkina Faso river valshyleys An erradiation program has now at least temporarily eliminated this problem In the irrigation projects the widespread incidence of bilharzia substantially reduces labor productivity
14 By successful we mean passing the three evaluation criteria recommended
in Figure 5 Clearly agricultural scientists will also be interested in those technologies being passed on to the Extension Service for diffusion We are stressing here their interest in feedback in order to resolve those problems in their technologies which came to their attenshytion because of the results of the on-farm trials
15 We would expect that those agencies principally concerned with varietal
development would emphasize varietal testing in their on-farm trials The on-farm trials are important activities for institutions primarily concerned with breeding Nevertheless a third party such as a univershysity may be necessary in order to carry out the farm trials without preconceived notions which would emphasize certain varieties or other types of technology
16 The differences are so great between the experiment station and the
farm-level definitions of constraints and relevant research problems that one of the field agronomists from this project even proposed that all agricultural scientists working on the experiment stations in the WASAT should have some involvement with on-farm trials
CHAPTER IV
PRODUCTION CONSTRAINTS OF THE WASAT FARMING SYSTEMS
The WASAT is not as well endowed with a climate or soil resource base as most of the populated areas of the world This chapter elaborates on the major physical and resource endowment constraints of the WASAT and describes cropping patterns farmers goals and objectives and modern input use
Climate
The WASAT region is a transition zone betwien the northern desert and the humid tropics of the south There are three distinct seasons warm and dry from November to March hot and dry during March through May and hot and wet from May to October Harmattan conditions (hot dry dustshyladen winds) exist during the November to March period
Rainfall in the May to October agricultural season over the entire WASAT ranges from 200 mm in the north to 1300 mm in the south with potenshytial evapotranspiration ranging between 2200 mm in the north to 1600 mm in the south (Nicou and Charreau 1985) Since the mid-sixties annual rainshyfall has averaged 100 to 150 mm below the long-term average within each isohyet (Dancette 1977) Thus the isohyet levels delineating the climatic zones in Figure 1 would be at lower levels if more recent rainfall data were used
Rainfall is extremely variable over time and over space Nicholson (1982) states that in normal rainfall years 40 to 50 of individual weather stations experience below-normal rainfall Rainfall vaiiabiltty at individual stations ranges from 15 of the long-term average in the south to 50 in the north (Nicholson 1982) Also the number of below-normal years tend to exceed the number of wet years The long-term average rainshyfall is inflated by a few extremely wet years (Nicholson 1982) The area also has a long history of intermittent droughts and wet spells
Soil Fertility and Water Retention
Soils in the WASAT are predominantly sandy red alfisols low in organic matter and exchangeable cations with a soil texture high in sand (60-95) anO low in silt and clay content (Matlon 1985 Nicou and Charreau 1985) The soils tend to be deficient in phosphorous and nitroshygen Long fallow periods can restore soil fertility but phosphorous and nitrogen deficiency symptoms have been observed shortly after the land is put into cultivation (IFDC 1985) The phosphorous sorption capacity of WASAT soils vary widely but is generally low decreasing the agronomiceffectiveness of phosphate fertilizers (IFDC 1985) Nitrogen can be quickly exhausted in these fragile poorly buffered soils (IFDC 1985) The soils contain only weak aggregates and in many regions the soil surface
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dries after a rain and forms a crust which restrict water infiltration and aeration (Kowal and Kassam 1978) These soil properties combined with high intensity rainfall lead to water retention and erosion problems In the dry season the soils harden making pre-plant cultivation difficult and almost impossible by traditional methods until there is a major rain (Kowal and Kassam 1978)
The quality of the land in terms of fertility and organic matter conshytent varies greatly in tarmers fields Land quality and soil water retenshytion are highly correlated with topography and distance from the compound area around the living quarters The quality and water retention ability of the soil deteriorates as one moves farther up the toposequence and away from the compound area thus requiring different cropping and management strategies by the farmer (Stoop et al 1982)
Although more productive vertisols and hydromorphic soils are found along river valleys the presence of Onchoceriasis (river blindness) in many of the river valleys has made them uninhabitable in the past
Labor Availability
Labor shortages exist in the critical planting and weeding periods (FSUSAFGRAD 1983) Planting of millet and sorghum begins with the first significant rains in May or June This is followed by rice groundnut and maize planting in combination with the sorghum and millet first weeding activities Depending on the level and distribution of rainfall fields may require resowing transplanting andor thinning Usually a second and at times a third weeding will follow Most of the plantingfirst weeding period occurs over a six-week time period with the household supshyplying the labor
When farmers were asked why they did not hire more labor for first weeding their reply was Because there is no one to hire then everyone is busy with their own weeding (FSUSAFCRAD 1983) Households do not genershyally hire labor from other households because cash and food reserves at this time of year are at their lowest and not sufficient to pay laborers a wage rate (or its equiyalent in food) equal to the opportunity cost of working their own land Also few laborers are in the labor market at this time because households have control of their family labor and utilize it for their own production needs (Kowal amp Kassam 1978)
Cropping Patterns
Cereal production is the dominant agricultural activity in the WASAT (Kowal and Kassam 1978) Regional cropping patterns in the WASAT differ-shythe most notable difference being the increasing dominance of millet over sorghum maize and root crops as soil fertility and rainfall decrease from south to north About 80 of the cropped area in the WASAT is intershycropped--cerealcereal and cereallegume are the most common (Fussell and Serafini 1985 Sawadogo et al 1985) Cowpeas are usually intercropped
33
with millet or sorghum at low densities of 1000 to 8000 plants per hectare The main cash crops in the south include cotton groundnuts and bambara nuts Small amounts of rice are grown in the bottom lands and irrigated areas
At the farm level land quality the water retention ability of the soil and labor availability are the dominant factors in farmers cropping decisions (Lang et al 1983) The staple crops of maize sorghum and millet receive the highest priority of land and labor resources Drought tolerance of the crops are matched with soil fertility and toposequence Maize which is less tolerant to drought and low soil fertility than either sorghum or millet is planted near the villagle compound on the more-fertile compound field This field ranging in size from 1 to 2 ha is used as a dump for night soil animal manure stubble and other organic material Sorghum is planted on the lower areas where there is slightly more water accumulation and where the soils are more fertile than the poorer soils further up the toposequence (Stoop et al 1982) The more abundant but poorer land is planted to millet which has the most tolerance to drought and low soil fertility Farmers say that in the worst rainfall years some millet can always be harvested
Millet and sorghum can be found growing in the next higher soil fershytility gradient than is dictated by their drought tolerance ability but maize and sorghum are rarely grown on a lower soil fertility gradient Farmers say that white sorghum is preferred because it stores twice as long as millet however more sorghum is not sown because of limited good qualshyity land and because sorghum is more vulnerable to parasites such as striga Maize and sorghum planting is thus constrained by the availability of high quality land whereas the millet area is constrained by the labor supply in the plantingfirst weeding period
In the old settlement areas cereal yields are declining in response to lower soil fertility caused by the decrease in the fallow period and lower average rainfall over the last decade (Lang et al 1984) As the soil fertility declines sorghum is being replaced by millet which yields better on the poorer soils Farmers in the village of Nedogo say that much more sorghum was planted in the village when they were young than is planted now (Ames 1986)
Farmer Goals and Objectives
Norman (1982) states that the most important differences among farming systems come from the constraints peculiar to the region and not from difshyferences in farmer aspirations (which include higher incomes effort reducshytion and risk avoidance) Farmers in older settlement areas have conshystraints and endowments which differ from those of farmers in frontier villages Farmers in the older settlement areas of Burkina where access to land is limited and soil fertility low indicated uniformly that their only goal was subsistence (FSUSAFGRAD 1983) This means harvesting enough sorghum and millet in November to feed their families until the beginning
34
of the August maize harvest that provides food during the hungry period-shythe period between ending cereal stocks and the new harvest (FSUSAFGRAD 1983) When asked to specify other goals and objectives the first priorshyity was the payment of a head tax and if resources remained meetingurgent needs which were listed as medical Other priorities were to reward the family with clothes for their work during the cropping season and to greet their in-laws or arrange marriages (FSUSAFGTAD 1983)
On the frontier where access to fallow land is notl limited half of the farmers gave subsistence oriented responses that were similar to the responses given in the older settlement areas However half of the farmshyers responded that We were once concerned only with survival but now we also think of accumulating wealth When asked What is wealth they replied cattle (FSUSAFGRAD 1983)
The survey results indicated that although farmers in the WASAT in general are subsistence oriented the goals and objectives of farmers difshyfer given different constraints This is evidenced by the total subsisshytence orientation of the sample of farmers in the old settlement villages versus the orientation of those farmers in the frontier village who indishycated wealth accumulation as one of their main goals Higher soil fertilshyity and access to land at the frontier has permitted farmers to look beyond subsistence goals This appears to demonstrate that if through technologshyical introduction some of the constraints to increasing yield in the WASAT can be alleviated the aspirations of farmers will allow technology adopshytion to occur (at some level of profit effort and risk)
Modern Input Use
Except for tuie higher rainfall regions of the Sudano-Guinean region and some river valleys credit and modern inputs such as fertilizer pestishycides herbicides and improved varieties are not widely used in the WASAT Even in these regions of higher rainfall purchased input utilization is concentrated on the export crops cotton and groundnuts FAO fertilizer statistics indicate that NPK use in eight Sahelian countries averaged less than 3 kgha as compared to 73 kgha in Asia (Matlon 1985) Less than 15 of farmers use animal traction in the WASAT (Matlon and Spencer 1985) Animal traction is used for shallow land preparation plowing and shallow weeding but utilization rates are low and farmers seldom are equipped to do more than one mechanized operation (Jaeger 1985)
Neither input nor product marketing infrastructure nor a research and extension service similar to that developed for cash crops in the WASAT pre-independence era (pre-1960) was ever developed for food crops In the Colonial period food requirements were met by the subsistence-oriented agricultural system There was little export demand for food crops such as sorghum and millet (World Bank 1985) Since the late 1960s however rapid population growth and lower food crop yields due to lower rainfall levels and declining soil fertility have substantially increased food crop
35
demand to the point where food security is not assured in most regions of the WASAT Expanding cereal imports have accompanied this trend
Even with the population pressure and increased food demand since independence an input and product marketing infrastructure for food crops has not developed Poor fertility 3oils erratic rainfall distribution and low soil water retention have led to highly variable between-year yield responses to many land-substituting inputs For example the response of fertilizer is highly dependent upon the availability of sufficient water at several critical periods Thus fertilizer utilization can be very risky Similarly iroved varieties have not dcne well under traditional manageshyment conditions (Matlon 1985)
Labor-saving animal traction technology is not widely used in the WASAT in spite of potentially high ratc of return Present internal rates of return of 10 in old settlement areas (Nedogo) and 20 to 30 at the frontier (Diapangou) have been estimated but higher rates of return could be achieved with higher utilization rates principally through expansion of the number of mechanized agricultural operations (Jaeger 1985) Most animal traction farms observed in Burkina Faso mechanized either the land preparation or the cultivation operations but not both Problems of obtaining high utilization rates stein from small size farms inapproprishyate andor incomplete set of implements poor animal health and nucrition and poor management (Jaeger and Sanders 1985) Higher utilization rates and the full benefit of mechanization are not obtained by first-time animal traction users because learning curves can be as long as five years (Jaeger and Sanders 1985) Few animal traction extension programs exist which train farmers and draft animals and thus facilitate animal traction usage
In summary low soil fertility and low soil water retention low variable and unpredictable rainfall in combination with a high evapotransshypiration rate labor shortages in the critical planting and weeding periods and the limited access to land in old settlement areas are the major physical and resource endowment constraints to increased cereal yields in most of the WASAT (Matlon 1985 Nagy et al 1985 Lang et al 1984) The physical environment makes new technology adoption in the WASAT risky The national research institutions extension and input and product marketing infrastructures to support new technology adoption and dissemination are at a low level Thus farming systems on the frontier continue to be bush-fallow systems that rely on available land and family labor inputs with little utilization of purchased inputs Farming systems in the older settled area have been shifting to more millet production and yields have declined and stabilized at low levels
Despite the current situation in the WASAT recent research findings suggest that a Malthusian perspective can be iverted Several on-farm evaluated technologies have been shown to be both agronomically and economshyically feasible in increasing cereal production and others have promise for the future A review of the proposed technologies and farm management practices for the WASAT is the subject of the next chapter
36
Footnotes
Whole farm modeling results indicate opportunity costs of labor in the
last two weeks of the plantingfirst weeding period to be 365 and 181 FGFAhr respectively for manual tillage farmers which is in contrast to the wage rate of 30 to 50 FCFAhr (Roth et al 1986)
CHAPTER V
TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT TO INCREASE CEREAL PRODUCTION IN THE WASAT
Introduction
This chapter reviews the technologies and farm management techniques that have been proposed for alleviating the production constraints in the WASAT This review uses agronomic and socio-economic data and information frGn the Purdue FSU piogram supplemented by other research from the area The FSU program conducted research in three climatic zones with village research sites in the southern portion of the Sahelo-Sudanian zone in the Sudanian zone and in the northern portion of the Sudano-Guinean climatic zone (Figure 2) Thus FSU findings and the review of most of the techshynolog0ies and recommendations reflect this orientation
As each technology is discussed it is evaluated as to the feasibility of its utilization by farmers within the short run (0 to 5 years) the intermediate run (5 to 15 years) and the long run The criteria used in the evaluation attempt to follow the strategy used by farmers in their adoption process (see Figure 5 in Chapter III and Table 1 in this chapter)
Socio-economic research suggests that farmers do not necessarily adopt technologies as a package but rather adopt single technologies or clusters of technologies en route to total package adoption (Byerlee and Hesse de Polanco 1986 Mann 1978) This is in spite of the fact that the largest impact on yields comes about when various methods (technologies) are used in combinition or as a package The farmers strategy seems to be to adopt the technologies of the package sequentially based on availability technical viability in the field economic profitability and risk conshysiderations and the resource endowment fit of the technology (ie labor and land constraints) within the farming system The technologies within the package that best exhibit the above attributes will be selected first by the farmer Other technologies will be added only after the farmer has had positive experience with the already adopted technologies and when the above attribute requirements are again met Thus while farmers can be presented with a package of technologies there seems to be an agronomically and economically logical sequence by which technological adoption will occur Information on the likely adoption pattern sequence of proposed technologies is important for focusing research extension and government programs
In this chapter available agronomic technical and socio-economic research findings are used to review and sequence the proposed technologies and farm management practices for the WASAT For example research findings from on-station and on-farm research trials are used to assess technical viablity in the field Economic budget analysis and benefit-cost
38
Table 1 Present technical and economic feasibility and time frame of proposed technologies and farm management practices for the WASAT
Technologies Present Ayronomic and Technical Feasibility Present and Farm Mgmt On-Station On-Farm Economic
Practices Research Research Feasibility Comments
Available technologies for the short run
Tied ridging (manual) +++ Very labor intensive Diguettesdikes 3 Require materials (ie rocks) Complex fertilizer ++ Risk of losing cash outlayAnimal traction 3 ++ Preconditions (see text) Mechanical ridge tier +++ ++ Requires animal traction
Potential technologies for the intermediate run Rock phosphate + - Solubility amp application problems Improved varieties ++ + - Requires upgrading of physical
environment
Potential technologies for the long run Manurecomposting +++ ++ Small and finite supply Mulch +++ ++ Small and finite supply Plowinggreen manuring ++ ++ - Poor draft animal health
Herbicides ++ ++ - Further research requiredBiol nitrogen fixation + - Further research requir Crop associations - intensification ++ + - Requires upgrading of physical - alley cropping ++ + - environment and improved
varieties Labor and management
intensive
++ High degree of feasibility--research supports a very good agronomic response or is technically very
feasible ++ Feasible--good agronomic response or technically feasible + Limited feasibility--agronomic results often inconsistent - Not feasible--little evidence to support a good agronomic response or technical feasibility
HaHighly profitable at present
= Profitable at present = Not always profitable at pres(ent
- NHot economically feasible at present
3 Not researched at the on-station level
4 Can be feasible for sole cropping but problems with mixture of broad and slender leaf plants in crop associations
39
ratios are used to determine economic profitability Research irial results and the incidence of cash outlay loss are used to assess risk Whole farm modeling and labor data analysis is used to indicate the fit of the technolshyogy within the farming systems Farmers views and comments are also incorporated
Once the technologies and farm management practices are reviewed and sequenced for either the short intermediate or long run the discussion in this chapter turns to identifying available technologies--first for the present cereal-based farming systems and second for a future more intenshysified farming system The technologies available for use in the present farming systems are then further sequenced on a recommendation domain basis
Proposed Technologies for the WASAT
The research that has been carried out in the WASAT aimed at overcomshying climatological and physical constraints and labor endowment shortages is discussed under the hicadings 1) soil fertilitywater retention techshynologies 2) labor-saving technologies 3) improved varietal research and 4) crop associations Table 1 presents a summary of the technical and ecoshynomic feasibility evaluation and a time frame for the availability of the proposed technologies and farm management practices
1) Soil FertilityWater Retention Technologies
Tied Ridges Tied ridging technology was introduced in the 1950s in West Africa (Dagg and Macartney 1968) On-station and on-farm research has shown that tied ridges significantly increase yields (Nicou and Charreau 1985 Dugue 1985 Rodriguez 1982 Ohm et al 1985a and 1985b) (see Photograph 5 page 41) FSU on farm researcher-managed (TR constructed both at and one month after planting) and farmer-managed trials (TR conshystructed 4-6 weeks after planting) have shown significant yield increases and economic returns to the additional labor required for TR on maize sorghum (Table 2 column 2) and millet (FSU 1983 Annual Report 1983 Lang et al 1984 and Ohm et al 1985a and 1985b) Manual tying of ridges is very labor intensive The manual tying of ridges constructed with animal traction requires at least 40 man hoursha (with very efficient laborers) and on average 75 man hoursha whereas constructing TR completely by hand requires at least 100 hoursha (Ohm et al 1985b) (see Photograph 6 page 41)
PJshy
-no pre-plant soil itillage no fertilization Soil scarification with animal traction~Woman planting millet by traditional manual method
-
Left fertilization right no fertilization foreground droughty area in field shy a typical view in the Central Manual construction of tiec oges in researcher-managed trial - mulch applied to somePlateau plots
D II
A
FSU researcher managed trials near Poedogo Water entrapment in depressions resulting from tied ridgesa No fertilization construction of tied ridges at plantingb No fertilization construction of tied ridges one month after plantingc No fertilization without tied ridges d Fertilization and tied ridges
Ad T7 Z
Farmer-managed plots - Left traditional method no fertilization and no tied ridging right fertilization Farmer-managed trials - Left foreground mulch applied no fertilization nor construciion of tied ridgesand tied ridging Right foreground fertilization and contruction of tied ridges one month after planting Background farmshyers traditionally managed field
43
Construction of tied ridges with mechanical ridge tier FSU researcher managed trial Background maize intershycropped with cowpeas fertilized with construction of tiedridges at planting Foreground maize intercropped with cowshypeas no fertilization nor construction of tied ridges
43 - a
Table 2 Economic analysis of farmer-managed trials of sorghum with fertilizer and tied ridges Nedogo and Diapangou 1983 and 1984
1 Treatments
C TR F TRF Nedogo 1984 Manual Traction
Grain Yield kgha 2 157 416 431 652
Yield Gain Above Control kgha - 259 274 495
Gain in Net Revenue FCFAha 3 - 23828 13275 33607
Returnhr of Additional Labor FCFA4 238 140 172- Farmers Whio Would Have Lost Cash - 0 27 9
1aedogo 1983 Manual Traction Grain Yield kgha 430 484 547 851 Yield Gain Above Control kgha - 54 117 421 Gain in Net Revenue FCFAha - 3510 -2285 17475 Returnhr of Additional Labor FCFA - 35 - 90 Farmers Who Would Have Lost Cash - 0 66 0
Diapangou 1984 Donkey Traction Grain Yield kgha 498 688 849 1133 Yield Gain Above Control kgha - 190 351 635 Gain in Net Revenue FCFAha - 17480 20359 46487 Returnhr of Additional Labor FCFA - 233 214 273 Farmers Who Would Have Lost Cash shy 0 21 0
Diapangou 1983 Donkey Traction Grain Yield kgha 481 522 837 871 Yield Gain Above Control kgha - 71 356 390 Gain in Net Revenue FCFAha - 6532 20819 23947Returnhr of Additional Labor FCFA - 87 219 141 Farmers Who Would Have Lost Cash - 0 16 12
Source Ohm et al 19851) and Lang et al 1984 Similar results were obtained at three other sites in Burkina
1 C = Control (no tied ridges or fertilizer) TR = tied ridges constructed at second weeding F = fertilizer 100 kgha 14-23-15 applied in band 10-15 cm from row at first weeding plus 50 gla urea applied in pockets 10-15 cm from seed pockets at second weeding
2 The standard error and CV (in parentheses) starting with Nedogo 1984 and conshy
tinUing through to Diapangon 1983 are 75 (43) 121 (29) 46 (18) and 43 (22) respectively Net Revenue = yield gaiii x grain price (65 and 92 FCFAkg in 1983 and 1984) minus fertilizer cost (62 and 78 CFAkg for 14-23-15 and 60 and 66 FCFAkg for urea in 1983 and 1984--fertili C prices are subsidized 40 to 50) Includes interest rate charge for six months at rate of 15 1 US dollar = 381 FCFA in 1983 and 436 FCFA in 1984 Net Revenue + additional labor of tied ridging and fertilizer application Manual and donkey traction require 100 and 75 hours of additional laborha for tied ridging respectively Fertilizer application requires 95 additional hoursha
44
Tied ridge construction has the advantage that no cash outlay is reshyquired if family labor is utilized However a survey of technology adoption by farmers in FSU villages indicated that the number of farmers constructing tied ridges and the hectarage of tied ridge construction outshyside the trial plots were small--an average of 032 hectaresfarmer with the largest being 10 hectare (Ohm et a] 1985b) When questioned farmers indicated that thev would like to construct more TR but they did not have sufficient family Iabo I ir ing from an outside labor pool is limited at the time tied ridges mu be coumstructed because the active labor force of all households is fully occupied with work in their own fields Linear programming representative farm models (Table 3 column 2) also indicate that labor availab i i ty const rainos prevent the manual tying of animal traction constructed ridges from beilng ut ilized on the entire farm
Another limitation is that tied ridging does not work well on sandy soils because the ties tend to break down in heavy rain Nevertheless aim estimated 40 of the presently cultivated land in Burkina and 15 in Mali appears to be suitable for tied ridging This represents 12 million hecshytares (Burns 1985) Tied ridges have been shown to be both agronomically and economicaly feasih Ic as a technology applicable at the present time to increase cereal product ion in the WASAT However the labor constraint requires a search for labor- saving technoloies
I)iguettesdikes There are various water conservationerosion methods in addition to tied ridges that are or could be used in the WASAT The construction of diguettes although not as effective in retaining water as tied ridges is a water conservation method that has been investigated Diguettes are barriers 10 to 15 cm high mainly made of rocks and placed on field contour lines 10 to 50 meters apart The barriers are permeable ard slow rainfall runoff to allow for increased infiltration They have imshyproved water retention and signiicantly increased yields in the norther[ (Yatenga) region of Burkina (Wright 1985) This technology has the advarshytage that it can be constructed in off peak labor periods with family labor and is not as labor intensive as tied ridging However rocks (the prinshycipal material) or other material in some regions are not available to conshystruct the diguettes Economic analysis indicates that the returns in the first year alone are greater than the labor bill (at the going wage rate) of constructing the diguettes In Burkina Faso local government agencies have constructed large dikes and barriers to control water flow at the village level Although diguettes and other forms of water retention and control require further research thme large dikes and diguettes are technologies that could be used at present
Complex Themical Fertilizers Under on-station and on-farm conditions significant yield increases for maize sorghum and millet have been obtained using complex mineral fertilizers (Pieri 1985 Ohm et al 1985b FSU Annual Reports) Yield response to fertilizer is however highly variable between sites and years (Spencer 1985) Nevertheless some researchers sugsest that continuous cropping using chemical fertilizers is potentially possible in the WASAT (see Pier 1985 p 77 for a literature review
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
45
Table 3 Whole farm modeling analysis of tied ridging with donkey tracshytion Central Plateau Burkina Faso
Tied-Ridging Technology Traditional Tied with Machine Management Tied by Two One
Variable (donkey) Hand Passes Pass -------------------- hectares---------------------
Total Area Cultivated 55 56 56 55 Maize
Traditional 20 - - -With Tied Ridges 20 20 20
Red Sorghum Traditional 60 - - -With Tied Ridges 60 60 60
White Sorghum Traditional 80 51 With Tied Ridges 29 80 80
Millet Traditional 318 315 315 184 With Tied Ridges - 33 164
Peanuts 76 85 53 43
Total Cereals Production ---------------------- kgs------------------------Per Househol 2103 2436 2651 2737 Per Resident 150 174 189 196
Net Farm Income 3 000s FCFA-------------------Per Household 2153 2462 2535 2622 Per Worker 308 352 362 375
1 Labor times of 75 man hoursha for tying of the ridges by hand 20 man
hoursha to machine tie with two passes and 2 aan hours to machine tie with one pass Yield estimates in kgsha for traditional practices and the technical intervention of tied ridging are as follows maize (1090 to 1730) red sorghum (672 to 940) white sorghum (472 to 660) and milshylet (320 to 415) 1985 fertilizer and grain prices were used
2 Based on 14 residentshousehold Annualized cost of 4400 FCFA for tied-ridging machine subtracted in colshyumns 3 and 4 Based on 7 active workershousehold
46
and references) Decreases in yield and fertilizer efficiency however have been observed after two to five years of continuous cropping where organic matter has not been incorporated into the soil (Pieri 1985)
In Burkina Faso on-farm researcher-managed trials indicate that the response of maize yields to tertilizer on the relatively high fertilitycompound soils was not economically profitable (1982 FSU Annual Report 1983) On-farm farmer-managed trials indicated that fertilizer can be profitable when using fertilizer alone on sorghum (Table 2 column 3) There is however considerable risk for the farmer of losing the cash outshylay when fertilizer is used alone as demonstrated by the percentage of farmers who would have lost cash in Table 2 column 3 Both yield and profitability substantially inicrease however when tied ridges and fertilshyizer are used in combination as indicated in Table 2 column 4 Also as shown in column 4 the risk of losing the cash outlay from the purchase of fertilize substantially decreases when fertilizer and TR are used in comshybination Fertilizer in combination with TR for millet on millet land has also been shown to be profitable with only a modera e risk of farmers losshying the fertilizer cash outlay (Ohm et al 1985a)
A survey of four FSU villages in Burkina indicated a range of fertilshyizer use )n cereals from zero farmers in the sample of the northern village of Bangasse to 33 of the farmers in the southern village sample from Poedogo which has better land and higher rainfall In the more northern region fertilizer use is riskier due to lower and more erratic rainfall Average hectarage fertilized in the villages that used fertil zer ranged from 034 ha at Nedogo to 3 ha at Poedogo (Ohm et al 1985b) Although the use rate per hectare was not established field staff indicated it was substantially lower than the 100 kga of 14-23-15 fertilizer applied to most of the FSU trials in the villages
The evidence to date on fertilizer use in the WASAT suggests that comshyplex fertilizers are a technolegy that can be used at present but yields are highly variable and the incidence of fertilizer cash outlay loss by farmers is high unless combined with a water retention technique such as TR The risk of losing cash decreases in the higher soil fertility and higher rainfall areas Empirical evidence also suggests that fertilizer use or water retention techniques such as TR when used alone can be economshyically feasible but that when used together the profitability substanshytially increases Moreover the number of farmers losing cash decreases subFstantially as compared with the fertilizer only strategy
Indigenous Rock Phosphate The benefits of using indig ous rock phosphate deposits in the WASAT are potentially appealling in terms of logistcs transportation cost advantages and foreign exchange savings Workable deposits occur in Senegal Mali Niger Togo Benin Nigeria and Burkina Faso On-station and on-farm trials have however found the rock phosphate to have solubility problems (IFDC 1985 Pieri 1985) The comshybination of the low P release in a water-soluble form that is readily available for use by plants aid the low I-sorption capacity of the WASAT soils have resulted in poor agronomic performance from rock phosphate applications There is little or no potential for direct application of WASAT rock phosphate with the possible exception of the Mali (Tilemsi) and Niger (Tahoual) deposits (IFDC 1985)
47
Two methods are used to increase the agronomic effectiveness of rock phosphate One method is to highly granulate the rock and the other method is acidulation Even when highly granulated the agronomic effrectiveness is low and several years of consecutive applications are required before significant yield increases are observed (IFDC 1985 FSU Annual Reports) After several years of application benefit-cnst ratios were still lower than other sources of phosphorous (IFDC 1985)
Four years of FSU on-farm farmer-managed trials in Burkina Faso using highly granulated Burkina rock phosphate (100 kgha rock phosphate with 50 kgha urea applied each year on the same plots) also indicated low benefitshycost ratios Benefit-cost ratios of less than one with a 50 subsidized rock phosphate price were obtained (Unpublished FSU data) In the same experiment benefit-cost ratios of 13 were obtained from a rock phosphate tied ridging treatment but the benefit-cost ratio decreased to 069 when unsubsidized prices were used FSU cooperator farmers did not like using the rock phosphate due to its poor agronomic performance and application problems due to its highly granulated form
IFDC has developed two processes for the partial acidulation of rock phosphate Acidulation with sulfuric or phosphoric acid converts the calshycium phosphate into a more soluble form Research on the agronomic effecshytiveness of partially acidulated rock phosphate in the WASAT has given conshyflicting results (Batiano et al 1985) Inconsistent results were obtained by FSU with 50 acidulated Burkina rock phosphate in a one year on-farm researcher-managed trial with sorghum and millet (Ohm et al 1985a) The partially acidulated rock phosphate is also highly granulated giving rise to farmer application problems
Few economic studies of acidulated rock phosphate are available for the WASAT When compared with single superphosphate the relative economic performance of acidulated rock phosphate on millet in Niger is generally lower but is not consistent across sites or years (IFDC 1985)
To be agronomically and economically feasible the solubility problems of rock phosphate will have to be overcome The present effectiveness of acidulation requires further on-farm testing Once rock phosphate became agronomically and economically feasible fertilizer plants and distribution networks would require several years to develop A source of sulfuric or phosphoric acid at economically feasible prices is also required (Pieri 1985) Thus rock phosphate appears to be a technology most appropriate in the intermediate run after the technical problems of solubility and applishycation are resolved economically at the farm level
Animal Manure and Compost Manure and compost are already being used effectively on fields near the compound although application and composting techniques could be more efficient (Pieri 1985 Table 11) The principal constraint to the increased use of manuring and composting is their finite supply Few organic waste materials are left once the household and animal feed requirements are met Manure availability will increase only when animals are penned to make collection possible However cattle are grazed on fallow land away from the living quarters and the labor involved in conshyfined rearing of animals is too great Cattle are also entrusted to herdshyers because of feed shortages close to the village As fallow land
48
declines in the old settlement areas it will be increasingly difficult to support cattle near the village and in the area in general
While animal manure and composting are agronomically and economically feasible for use around the compound area at present they do not representfarm management practices that will substantially increase cereal producshytion in the WASAT in the short and intermediate run because of their finite supply Their potential will only be realized in the long run when the farming system evolves from the dominant cereal-based system to a more intensive cereal-foragecash crop system that is able to support more liveshystock near the village
Mulch Crop residue mulch can reduce rainfall runoff and increase water infiltration but sorghum amid millet stalks in raw or compost form mayadd little to soil fertility (Pieri 1985 p 91) As with manure the principal limiting factor of mulch is its finite supply--especially in the northern half of the WASAT The demand for its uses as animal feed fuel and construction materia] leaves most fields bare by planting time and even when it is not all used the prevalent custom is to burn it Moreover crop residues (3 to 5 Tha) are not sufficient by themselvEs to increase soil fertility and writer retention capacity appreciably In addition applications of mulch (10 Tha) can give rise to nitrogen deficiency which can only be overcome by composting or the addition of nitrogen (Pieri 1985)
Plowinggreen manuring Significant yield increases from on-station and n-farm research have been observed from deep ploughing and tillagepractices which change the structure of the soil allowing better root establishment and improved water infiltration and storage (Nicou and Charreau 1985 I)ugue 1985) Most tillage in the WASAT is done by shalshylow manual cultivation (85 of farmers) or by shallow animal traction cultivation Little pre-plant ploughing or tillage is done because of the need to plant soon after a rain (within 2 to 3 days) The soil is genershyally too hard and the animals too weak at this time of year for effective ploughing to take place before a major rain
Green manuring can also increase the fertility of the soil and add to its water retention capacity (Pieri 1985) However this practice also requires deep ploughing to incorporate the plants into the soil To be effective pre-plant and deep ploughing and green manure incorporation all require substantial draft power which can only be given by healthy well fed double ox teams This type of draft power will be available only in the long run when the farming systems can support high level-maintenance of the draft animals
2) Labor Saving Technologies
Animal Traction An estimated fifteen percent of farms in the WASAT use animal traction--mainly for transport shallow weeding or shallow land-preparation plowing (Matlon 1985) (see Photograph 2 page 40) Farmshyers in general use only one mechanized operation rather than using animal traction for all the agricultural activities of soil preparation plantingand weeding (Jaeger 1985) To date animal traction usage in the WASAT can be characterized as iand using (extensive) Some studies have reported
49
significant farm area expansion from animal traction usage Animal tracshytion can perform weeding 6 to 7 times faster than manual weeding (Jaeger and Sanders 1985) Increased yield effects have been reported in the literature (mainly from ploughing) but the yield effects are generally small (Binswanger 1978)
In spite of low animal traction adoption in the WASAT at present it is a technology that is feasible for use in the short run Animal traction can be made more economically attractive to farmers Present internal rates of return can be doubled and tripled by higher utilization rates (Jaeger 1985) Higher utilization rates can be achieved by increasing the number of mechanized operations In the past many animal traction proshygrams have failed in the WASAT because utilization rates were not suffishyciently high Returns to first time users of animal traction in the first years of operation are generally low because learning curves can be as long as five years and is a deterrent to first time users (Jaeger and Sanders 1985) First time users can obtain the full benefit of nechanizatior quicker through farmer and animal extension training and an improved market for trained draft animals
Mechanical Ridge Tier To respond to the labor constraint in conshystructing tied ridges the IITASAFGRAD Agronomy Program designed a protoshytype mechanical ridge tier (MRT) (Figure 6) for animal traction (Wright and Rodriguez 1985) (see Photographs 7 and 9 pages 41 42) With FSU and IITA SAFGRAD collaboration ihe MRT was field tested as part of Burkinas 1985 national farming systems program (Nagy et al 1986a) Yield levels compare favorably between ridges constructed with animal traction and tied manually and those ridges made with the MRT When the two pass method is used (first ridging and then using the MRT) the MRT substantially reduces the labor requirements from an average 75 man hoursha for the manual tyingof animal traction ridges to 20 man hoursha The MRT operation requires only 2 to 3 additional hours above ridging alone when ridging and tying with the MRT are done simultaneously (one pass) Donkeys must be strong and healthy for the one pass method Oxen which are mainly available on the frontier clearly have an advantage and can easily do both operations simultaneously
Linear programming representative farm models indicate that while available labor constrains the tying of ridges manually to 11 ha (Table 3 column 2) the MRT can tie 32 ha when using the one-pass method (Table 3 column 4) and is highly profitable The profitability is further increased with the addition of fertilizer (Table 4) although hectarage under tied ridges decreases to 09 for manual tying and to 30 with the MRT because labor is required for fertilizer application Budget analysis also indishycates the profitability of the MRT urder vaiious prices and goodbad year weather scenarios (Nagy et al 1986a)
50
10
9
3 Latch lever 8 30 cm ridger that allows soil to flow over the top
4 Rubber band (inner tube strip) 9 Handles of houe Manga (FAQ donkey weecer) 5 Latch adjuster (for correct angle and to 10 Bicycle cable to brake lever
compensate for wear in bearings shovels and latch)
Figure 6 The ITASAFGRAD mechanical ridge tier (donkey version)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
51
Table 4 Whole farm modeling analysis of a tied ridging-fertilization technology combination with donkey traction Central Plateau Burkina Faso
Tied-Ridging Technology Traditional Tied with Machine Management Tied by Two One
Variable (donkey) Hand Passes Pass ------------------- hectares---------------------
Total Area Cultivated 55 56 57 56 Maize
Traditional 20 With Tied Ridges 20 15 15
Red Sorghum Traditional 60 With Tied Ridges 60 68 60
White Sorghum Traditional 80 70 With Tied Ridges 10 80 95
Millet Traditional 318 315 318 188 With Tied Ridges 05 127
Peanuts 76 86 79 71
Total Cereals Production -------------------- kgs Per Househol 2103 2604 2970 3354 Per Resident 10 186 212 240
Net Farm Income3 000s FCFA-------------------Per Household 2153 2532 2732 2964 Per Worker 308 362 390 423
ource Nagy et al 1985 Based un application of 100 kgha 14-23-15 fertilizer at planting and 50 kgha urea four weeks after planting (20 man hoursha labor requirement for each application) Labor times of 75 man hoursha for tying of the ridges by hand 20 man hoursha to machine tie with two passes and 2 man hoursha to machine tie in one pass Yield estimates in kgsha for trashyditional practices and the technological interventions of fertilization and tied ridges in combination are as follows maize - not fertilized (1090 to 1730) red sorghum (672 to 1236) white sorghum (472 to 913) and millet (320 to 660) 1985 fertilizer and grain prices were used Based on 14 residentshousehold
4 Annualized cost of 4400 FCFA for machine subtracted in columns 3 and 4 Based on 7 active workershousehold
52
Information from farmer questionnaires and field staff indicates that the major problem with the MRT is its awkwardness However most farmers were able to operate the MRT fairly efficiently after 15 to 30 minute- in the field Several engineering features require redesigning but the overshyall consensus of the field trials is that the MRT or a machine similar to the MRT can be used at present not only as a labor-saving device but also as a yield-increasing technology
Herbicides Herbicides could be used to decrease the labor constraint in the peak-labor-demand plantingweeding period (Spencer 1985) At present acquiring herbicides in the WASAT is difficult and little research has been done to tailor herbicides to WASAT conditions Both broad leaf and slender leaf plants as well as various trees are grown in association in the same field and these are sensitive to different herbicides
Economic analysis in northern Nigeria (Ogungbile 1980) suggests that weeding either by animal traction or manually is more profitable than herbicides at present Herbicides will find an increasing role in the WASAT only when cropping intensities are increased to the point where they require more intensive weeding (Norman 1982) and when the opportunity cost of labor substantially increases (Ruthenberg 1980)
3) Improved Varietal Pesearch
Few improved varieties of food crops are used by farmers in the WASAT Significant yield increases for varietal improvement from on-station reshysearch have been observed but a large yield gap between on-station and onshyfarm yields exists especially for the staple crops of sorghum and millet Experimental results suggest that the cereal y6 eld gap is less for local than for improved cultivars (Matlon 1985) Yields from FSU on-farm trials in Burkina for improved maize red and white sorghum and cowpeas rarely exceeded the yields of local varieties of the traditional management treatments (FSU Annual Reports)
Analysis by ICRISAT of sorghum and millet cultivars indicate that the on-station selection procedures under a high management environment (high fertility tillage and water management) have resulted in elite cultivars being more management responsive than local varieties but at the same time inferior at lower management levels (Matlon 1985) This suggests that breeding objectives should include screening and selection procedures that can provide cultivars which also exploit moderate management levels and that there is a need to hasten the process of variety evaluation onto onshyfarm trials (Matlon 1985) With the current selection procedures the full impact from varietal development will only be felt in the WASAT when farmers utilize a higher degree of improved management practices--practices such as an MRT-fertilizer combination--which would not take place until the intermediate run Also even if change ocur in the present breeding objectives leading to the development of new varieties able to exploit moderate management levels these vayleties will only be available in the intermediate run (five to ten years)
4) Crop Associations
Experiment station studies of different crop associations have received increased attention in the WASAT over the past 15 years (Fussell
53
and Serafini 1985) Significant aggregate biological yields from intensishyfying cereal-cowpea associations have been obtained in research station trials (Fussell and Serafini 1985 Muleba1985) Increased legume densishyties however are normally accompanied by serious insect infestation probshylems requiring pesticide spraying The role that biological nitrogen fixashytion has played in obtaining the increased aggregate yields in cerealshylegume associations in the WASAT is yet to be determined (Fussell and Serifini 1985) Studies have shown however that under WASAT water stress and mineral deficiency conditions some legumes may contribute to nitrogen losses (Pieri 1985)
On-farm researcher-iianaged trials indicate that the most limiting facshytors in the performance of cereal-cowpea association intensification are soil moisture and fertility (Ohm et al 1985a) Under favorable condishytions of moisture and fertility it is profitable to increase cowpeadensity but under less favorable conditions the present practice of the farmers seems to be more dependable and profitable (Ohm et al 1985a)Under improved management (tied ridges fertilizer and pesticides) cowpeadensities somewhat higher than those currently used by farmers appear to be economically viable (Ohm et al 1985a) There are however instances where increased cowpea density has decreased sorghum yields (Matlon 1983)
Socio-economic studies indicate that farmers are primarily concerned with maintaining cereal yields and that modifications in cowpea densities and cultural practices that decrease cereal yield will not be adopted bythe farmer (Sawadogo et al 1985 Diehl and Sipkens 1985 Matlon 1983)Labor data analysis indicates that intensified cereal-cowpea associations substantially increase planting and weeding requirements (Matlon 1983)Depending on the planting date intensification can change the distribution of labor demand and reduce the amount of labor required for final weedingbecause of the cowpeas competition with the weeds Although returns to labor can be greater under intensification farmers do cite lower cereal yields and increased labor demands as the prime reasons for not intensifyshying (Matlon 1983)
Limited research has been carried out on cropping associations involvshying trees in the WASAT Alley cropping--food crops grown in the alleyformed by rows of leguminous shrubs or trees--could form one basis for changing traditional shifting cultivation practices (Kang et al 1984)Alley cropping does possess many potential advantages such as providingmulch firewood biologically fixed nitrogen animal feed and erosion conshytrol However it is very management-intensive and has not been thoroughly researched in the WASAT
Some intensification of cereal and legume crops can take place in the intermediate run once the physical environment is improved but significant crop intensification alley cropping and biological nitrogen fixation would contribute their greatest potential in the long run after farmers first increase their cereal production
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Sequencing of Technologies and Farm Management Practices in the WASAT
With falling cereal yields and the decline of the bush-fallow system in high density population areas the first necessity is to develop new technology systems to increase cereal yields Based upon the information of the proposed technologies as to their present agronomic technical and economic feasibility (Table 1) the overall sequential pattern of technoshylogical adoption would be to use the technologies available in the short run to alleviate the soil fertilitvwater retention constraints ie fertilizer tied ridges diguettes and dikes This would require alleviatshying the labor constraint in the peak-labor-demand period of plantingweedshying through available labor-saving technologies ie animal traction and the MRT
Once the agronomic environment has been improved new variety developshyment will be facilitated The development of these varieties will take time and be available in the intermediate run as compared with the more immediate availability of the tied ridgingfertilization technology combishynation Crop association intensification and diversification and other long run technologies and farm management techniques would then be incorshyporated as they become technically feasible Thus the overall sequential pattern of technology adoption can be dichotomized into a) technologies for the present cereal based farming systems and b) technologies and farm manshyagement practices for the Euture (intensified) farming systems
Technologies for the Present Farming Systems
Production constraints household endowments and household decision making characteristics are heterogeneous in the WASAT leiding to differshyences in the technology requirements and adoption patterns of various households Thus the delineation of recommendation domains can aid the targeting of research extension and government policy and programs This section of the chapter first delineates a set of recommendation domains based on production constraints household characteristics and resource endowments The technologies available in the short run (Table 1) are then sequenced as to the probable adoption pattern within each recommendation domain
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Recommendation Domains Based on Production Constraints
The labor endowment shortage is homogeneous throughout the WASAT but access to land is not Old settlement high-population-density areas exhibit limited to zero fallow rotation due to the limited access to land In general land quality and yield in the older settlement areas is lower than on the frontier which has access to land ind utilizes the traditional bush-fallow system Both intensification and extensification options are available on the frontier whereas only the intensification options are available in the old settlement areas due to the limited access to land Thus technology adoption choices are different in the two areas and a delineation can be made on a population density basis as follows
A Old settlementhigh-population-density areas (ie Central Plateau Burkina Faso)
B Frontierlow-population-density areas
Recommendation domains can also be made on an agroclimatic basis Higher rainfall and relatively higher soil fertility in a general north to south direction within the WASAT vary technology requirements and expected adoption patterns
Recommendation Domains Based on Household Characteristics and Endowments
Farmers have been found to be mainly risk averse (Binswanger 1980 Dillon and Scandizzo 1978) However the risk aversion of farmers within a group may range between high risk aversion and low risk avoidance depending on their initial endowments ie wealth Theoretically the risk that a household will assume is positively correlated with household wealth-shywealth being largely embodied in livestock holdings (mainly cattle) Wealth can also be considered positively correlated with the ability of a household to invest in purchased inputs or absorb larger losses in a poor rainfall season Household characteristics are further delineated into the type cf traction (manual or animal) presently being used This leads to the following recommendation domains Ysed on the household characteristics of risk wealth and type of traction
I A high risk aver3e low wealth manual tillage household--may only adopt low riT technologies and has limited ability to buy purshychased inputs
II A low risk averse high wealth animal traction household--chance of technology adoption higher due to the greater ability to buy purchased inputs
III A low risk averse high wealth manual traction household--chance of technology adoption higher due to greater ability to buy purshychased inputs but has not yet made the transition to animal traction
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Six recommendation domains are presented in Table 5 based upon the household characteristics and population density (access to land) typoloshygies described earlier The recommendation domains are for the 500 to 900 mm annual rainfall regions The potential sequential adoption patterns of the available technologies in the short run for the present cereal based farming systems--complex fertilizers tied ridging animal traction and the MRT--are presented in Table 5 for each recommendation domain The sequencing patterns of the technologies for each recommendation domain are based on the previous discussion of farmers adoption strategies where technologies are adopted singly or in clusters in a logical agronomic and economR sequence This is discussed for each recommendation domain below
IA High Risk Averse Central Plateau Manual Households
With limited access to land limited ability to buy purchased inputs and high risk aversion the opportunities for the household in the first stage of technology adoption are to manually construct tied ridges and use other water retention techniques such as diguettes which use available famshyily labor Linear programming (LP) results indicate that up to 1 hectare could be put in tied ridges manually by the average household which would increase production and income (Table 3 column 1) Also survey results indicated that households used tied ridging at FSU village sites and did tied ridging between 13 and 1 hectare per household (Ohm et al 1985a) Tied ridging is agronomically feasible and economically profitable For this highly risk averse group tied ridging is especially attractive beshycause there is no ris 5of losing a cash outlay with only family labor being utilized for ridging
The next step in the sequence of technology adoption would involve a cash outlay Fertilizer is an option on the land in tied ridges espeshycially in the more southern regions of the WASAT where rainfall is higher Fertilizer use although profitable (Table 2 column 4 Nedogo) would be limited by the small hectarage under tied ridges and the tendency of this group of farmers to avoid risks
Animal traction in combination with the MRT would seem to be the next step in the sequence This combination is not only labor saving but yield increasing as well The addition of the MRT to the machinery complement increases the internal rate of return from 10 for animal traction fWeedshying) alone (Jaeger 1984) to between 30-40 on the Central Plateau LP analysis (Table 3 column 4) indicates that the combination of animal tracshytion and the MRT enables the construction of tied ridges on up to 65 of available cereal land on the average or representative farm and increases total cereals production and income above that of traditional practices and
57
Table 5 Recommendation domains and likely sequential adoption patterns of technologies in the WASAT
1 2Household Central Plateau Frontier Characteristics A B
I High risk aversion 1 Manual tied ridges-diguettes 1 Animal traction 3
Low wealth endowment 2 Animal traction-MRT 2 MRT Manual traction 3 Fertilizer 3 Fertilizer
4 Improved varieties 4 Improved varieties
II Low risk aversion 1 Fertilizer 1 MRT High wealth endowment 2 MRT 2 Fertilizer Animal traction 3 Improved varieties 3 Improved varieties
III Low risk aversion 1 Fertilizer 1 Animal traction High wealth endowmont 2 Animal traction 2 MRT Manual traction 3 MRT 3 Fertilizer
4 Improved varieties 4 Improved varieties
1 High density population limited access to land and in general lower quality land than the Frontier
2 Low population density access to land and in generel higher quality land than the Central Plateau
T MRT - the mechanical ridge tier
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17
manual tied ridging With the increase in income households would then be in a better position to purchase fertilizers Internal rates of return for an animal traction-MRT-fertilizer combination range from 25-30 and increase production and income over the animal traction-MRT combination (contrast Table 3 column 4 with Table 4 column 4)
IB High Risk Averse Frontier Manual Households
Households included in this category could follow the manual tied ridgingdiguette regime of Type IA households on maize compound land but may find it as profitable and less labor constraining to maintain the bushshyfallow system for sorghum and millet and use animal traction The present internal rate of return using donkey and ox traction has been estimated to be 31 and 21 respcCtively for a frontier area but the rates of return can be doubled with increased utilization thus making the technology very profshyitable (Jaeger 1984) Next in the sequential adoption pattern would be the use of the MRT The use of the MRT by households may not be used conshycurrently with the introduction of animal traction but the incentive for its utilization would increase as population pressure increased and land became more scarce With internal rates of return of 35-40 for donkey traction and 25-30ior ox traction mechanical ridge tying at the frontier could be expected The third step in the sequence would be the addition of fertilizer
IlA Low Risk Averse Central Plateau Animal Traction Households
Animal traction households exhibiting a lower risk aversion and a greater ability to buy purchased inputs will likely find fertilizer as the best option particularly in the more southern areas of the WASAT with higher rainfall The option of using animal traction to extensify is not available because of the limited access to land and thus the next technolshyogy in the sequential adoption pattern would be to use animal traction to intensify using the MRT
IIB Low Risk Averse Frontier Manual Households
As in IB the extensification option of using animal traction will continue to dominate until increased population pressure limits access to land thus making the intensification option of using the MRT more attracshytive--especially in the northern areas of the WASAT where the rainfall is more limited and Aserratic soil fertility declines fertilizer will become more profitable
IIIA Low Risk Averse Central Plateau Manual Households
Households in this category are expected to choose fertilizer over manual tying of ridges because they have the ability to purchase it and are less averse to taking risk Manual tied ridging could also be an option at first but presented with the opportunity of using an animal traction-MRT combination households would probably choose the latter
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IIIB Low Risk Averse Frontier Manual Tillage Households
Although these households would not be averse to using the land-subshystituting inputs a higher payoff is likely to come from extensification using animal traction in the initial stages of technology introduction As population pressure on the higher quality land increases increased utilshyization of the MRT and fertilizer would be expected
In summary different sequential adoption patterns exist for the difshyferent recommendation domains Adoption is expected to be more rapid by those in the low risk aversehigh wealth categories Given the present levels of research exteksion and government program support some groups such as the high risk averselow wealth old settlement farmers may never adopt any of the technologies
Tied ridging chemical fertilizer and animal traction have all been potentially available to farmers in the WASAT over the last two decades Yet little adoption of these technologies for cereal production has taken place Our hypothesis for this lack of adoption is that while the indivishydual technologiuts may be technically and economically feasible the ecoshynomic impact of individual technologies for the level of risk involved has not been sufficiently high Both farm trials and whole-farm modeling indishycate a substantially higher impact from the simultaneous introduction of all three technologies including the MRT The combined introduction of these technologies alleviates the soil fertility soil water and labor constraints and provides tilarge economic incentive at low levels of risk
The requirement th t the available technologies be introduced simulshytaneously to satisfy farmers risk and profit levels before they will be adopted is in conflict with the empirical finding that farmers adopt innoshyvations sequentially An alternative is to wait until new technologies are developed that satisfy the high profit-low risk criteria so that they will be adopted individually in a sequential manner Another alternative is to use support programs in view of the pressing nature of the problems in the WASAT Support trograms would have to take into consideration the sequenshytial nature of adoption while trying to achieve total package adoption as quickly as possible Animal traction farmers may adopt an MRTfertilizer package simultaneously given high economic incentives and support programs but clearly for manual farmers (the majority) the combined introduction of animal traction the MRT and a fertilizer package all at once in one year is too great
The main thrust of the support program should be to select the first technology within each recommendation donain (Table 5) and provide economic incentives that make the level of risk of the technology acceptable to farmers For example the first technology in the sequence of recommendashytion domains IB and IIB (Table 5) is animal traction Support programs
60
would be required to deal with the pre-conditions for animal traction adopshytion (as discussed in Chapters IV and V) and provide adequate economic incentives At a later period when farmers are acquainted with animal traction support programs would deal with the next technology in the sequence for each recommendation domain Following this procedure will reduce the adoption time between technologies within the package The supshyport programs should lead to the adoption of a soil fertility-water retention-labor saving technology package within each recommendation domain Without support programs technology adoption of the present techshynologies available to the WASAT will be very slow with some farmers--in particular the high risk averselow wealth farmers--not adopting any of the technologies
Technologies for Future Farming Systems
The long-run goal of technology introduction for future farming sysshytems is to change the upgraded dominant cereal-based farming system into a more intensified cereal-foragelivestock-cash crop farming systemInformation on the agronomic and economic feasibility of the technologies that may come into play in future farming systems is incomplete making it impossible to sequence the individual technologies as was done for technolshyogies available for present farming systems
Improvements in the present cereal-based farming systems will set the stage for a more intensive crop association and rotation regime Given the yield increase from the fertilizertied ridgesimproved variety combinashytion an estimation has been made that moderate cereal surpluses could be expected in the WASAT in the future with the adoption of these technologies (Savadogo 1986) This would make it possible to shift some production out of cereals and utilize available land labor and capital on more intensive cerealforagecash crop rotations--especially cereallegume rotations that could provide biological nitrogen fixation and reduce the costs of and dependency upon outside sources of nitrogen
Feed availability would increase livestock numbers and improve animal traction not only by better nutrition but also by shifting to more oxen power and away from the lower draft donkey power that dominates low qualityforage farming systems This would mean better crop residue incorporation and green manuring opportunities With increased livestock numbers in proximity to the household more manure would be available Although farmshyers would initially adopt these technologies sequentially the process of adoption would be an iterative one as the more intensive use of one techshynology allows a more intensive use of another ie increased forageallows more cattle to be kept near the compound resulting in more manure which in turn may allow more forage hectarage
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Footnotes
It would be more appropriate to measure risk in terms of a time series
variance (ie over many years) as opposed to a cross sectional varishyance method (ie over many farmers in one year) as used here Three years of data make it difficult to undertake a time series risk analyshysis For a textbook treatment of risk analysis see Anderson et al 1977
2 Tied ridges (TR) are small depressions made between crop rows either by
hand tillage or by a combination of animal traction and hand tillage When constructed by hand depressions 32 cm long x 24 cm wide x 16 cm deep spaced 1-12 meters apart are made between the rows When conshystructed with animal traction the fields are first ridged with a cultishyvator (houe manga) which is equipped with a middle sweep to create a furrow This is then followed by hand tillage to make a 16 cm high ridge perpendicular to the furrow every one to two meters The depresshysions catch and hold water after a rain and increase water infiltration and retention Due to the larger water holding capacity of animal tracshytion tied ridges water retention ability is greater than that of manually tied ridges
One exception should be noted Traditionally maize is grown on the relshyatively higher fertility compound land Three years of on-farm researcher-manageu trials experimenting with maize on non-compound land with TR in general did not show significant yield increases (FSU Annual Report 1983 Lang et al 1984 and Ohm et al 1985a) These expershyiments appear to indicate the need to first utilize organic material or fertilizer to convert the less fertile land into the equivalent of comshypound land before putting the tied ridges on it if maize is to be grown there
4 All the FSU economic analyses have been carried out using subsidized fertilizer prices (40 to 50) Clearly the economic profitability would be lower and the incidence of fertilizer cash outlay loss greater utilizing unsubsidized prices
Trials examining the possibility of growing maize on good sorghum land and sorghum on good millet land by upgrading the soil through a fertilshyizertied ridge combination were also conducted Three years of onshyfarm researcher-managed maize on sorghum land trials proved inconclushysive (FSU Annual Reports) and although a sorghum on millet land experishyment showed promise sorghum plant establishment was a problem (Ohm et al ]985a)
6 The observed farmer adoption rates in different regions correlate well
with experimental evidence which sugests that yields are less variable and more responsive to fertilizer and that there is less risk of losing fertilizer cash outlay as rainfall levels and land quality improves
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When questioned farmers said that they saw the value of fertilizer but that credit and availability were obstacles to greater use All complex fertilizers are imported from outside the WASAT and usually distribution within each country is handled by a para-statal organization
8 An FSU on-farm farmer-managed experiment involving tied ridges and
mulch (5 Tha) on maize was conducted in two village sites in Burkina in 1984 (Ohm et al 1985a p 17) The mulch part of the experiment was abandoned since only 6 of the 50 farmers had access to sufficient mulch
The MRT is attached to an animal drawn cultivator with one large middle sweep The MRT is essentially a paddle wheel (45 cm in diameter) with four paddles one scraping the ground building up earth until it is tripped by the operator every 1-12 to 2 meters to create the tie in the furrow between the two ridges
10 Analysis of five management factors--plowing tied ridges fertilization
timing planting arrangement and weeding timing--indicated that the major determinants of the yield gap between the experiment station and farmers fields were plowing and tied ridges (Matlon 1985) Also the major problems observed in the on-farm trials with the elite cultivars are drought and heat stress related leading to poor seedling establishshyment and poor flowering and grain filling ability Spittlebug problems have occurred on the new sorghum variety of Framida (Ohm et al 1985b) and striga continues to be a problem with most new sorghum varieties
11 The development of hybrid varieties such as the hybrid sorghums bred for
the Sudan (Gebisa 1986) may play a role in obtaining moderate level management response The poor marketing infrastructures of the WASAT however vould prevent hybrids from being a technology that could be used in the short run Present breeding for disease and pest resistance in sorghim and millet is encouraging (Andrews 1986 Andrews et al 1985) and is expected to play an important role in increasing cereal yields in the intermediate run
12 Empirical evidence linking reduced risk aversion with higher levels of
wealth is not available in the WASAT It has been a standard part of decision theory that at higher levels of wealth risk aversion would decrease (Anderson et al 1977) This proposition seems to be consisshytent with field interviews with farmers about their objectives (see Chapter IV page of this report)
13 Not included among the categories is a high risk averse low wealth
animal traction household While this category undoubtedly exists in the WASAT the number of households in this category would alot be large
14 The recommendation domains presented in Table 5 are discussed at the
inter-household level which considers resource endowments and decisionshymaking in the context of a family unit vis-a-vis another family unit
63
The recommendation domains could also be discussed at the intrashyhousehold level which considers differences--in gender age and access to and control of resources within the household--which may lead to difshyferences in the sequencing and types of technologies adopted by the various sub-groups (see McKee 1983 Nagy et al 1985)
15 The opportunity cost of labor (wage rate from outside employment) ranges
from 30 to 50 FCFAhr (FSU unpublished survey data) At an opportunity cost of 35 FCFAhr farmers would not have lost money by undertaking the construction of tied ridges (Table 2)
16 Calculations made using the procedure by Jaeger (1984) and adding apshy
propriate costs and revenues based on FSU on-farm farmer-managed trials to estimate the yield increases from the use of the MRT (Ohm et al 1985b Nagy et al 1986)
17 The weekly available labor hour figures used in the model are based on
conservative estimates Increasing the labor availabilities by 10 to 20 for the tied ridging period andor allowing tied ridging to also take place in the following period results in tied ridges being conshystructed on all the cereal land
CHAPTER VI
POLICY IMPLICATIONS AND FUTURE AVENUES FOR RESEARCH AND EXTENSION
This report has proposed that the overall sequence of technology intervention for the WASAT is 1) technologies that improve the agronomicenvironment ie water retention and soil fertility improvement With appropriate policy and institutional support this technology combination can be immediately implemented 2) the use when they become available of improved varieties that can exploit moderate input levels If varieties are developed for the moderate input levels recommended in 1) above this techshynology is expected to be available for farmer adoption in the next five to ten years and 3) more intensive livestockcereal systems in the better agricultural areas and a shift back to extensive grazing and forestry in the more marginal agricultural regions There are many types of technolshyogies for those intensive livestockcerealcash crop systems that can now be productively studied on the experiment station and in on-farm trials so that these systems can be available to farmers after the next decade
The first priority of the agricultural policy research and extension community in the WASAT is to develop technologies to increase the yields of the cereal-based systems dominate the The presentfarming which area focus should be on alleviating the low soil fertilitylow soil water retenshytion constraints Complex fertilizers the water retention methods of tied ridges diguettes and dikes and the labor-saving technologies of animal traction and the mechanical ridge tier are a]rady available for extension in much of the region
Tied ridging chemical fertilizer and animal traction however have all been potentially available to farmers in the WASAT for more than two decades Yet there has been little adoption by WASAT food crop producers of any of these three innovations This is because there was little ecoshynomic incentive to adopt these technologies prior to the 1960s because food consumption needs were being met Moreover there was little export demand for sorghum and millct Hence there was little demand for new cereal technologies However with increased population recent droughtsand the deterioration of the soil quality in the higher population regions during the intervening years the demand for new cereal technology has subshystantially increased
Credit fertilizer and animal traction non-availability and lack of information have all been cited as reasons for the low level of farmer adoption of the above technologies in the WASAT From our perspective the principal reason for the failure to adopt these individual components is that the economic impact of each of the three components has not been sufshyficiently high by itself Fertilizer utilization is too risky in poorrainfall years without some simultaneous method to increase the availabilshy
water the critical times of plant development themselves do not resolve the low soil fertility problem Family labor
ity of at Tied ridges by
65
availability constrains the amount of tied ridging construction It apshypears from the on-farm trials and the whole-farm modeling results that all three technologies (including the MRT) would need to be introduced togetherbefore economic incentive and risk levels are adequate for technology adoption Introducing the technologies together would alleviate the soil fertiltty soil water and labor constraints and provide high economic incentives at levels of risk that would be attractive to farmers However as previously discussed farmers adopt technologies sequentially and not as a package
An option is to wait for the research community to develop new techshynologies that will individually provide a sufficient economic incentive at a level of risk that is attractive to farmers Another option is to develop support programs that will enable farmers to sequentially adopt the available technologies en route to total package adoption The review of the constraints to cereal production and the review of the available and future technologies for the WASAT (Chapters IV and V) point out that such individual technologies will not be available in the short run and will probably not be available in the intermediate run (10-15 years) The pressing problems of the WASAT require more immediate solutions which can only be brought about by support programs to facilitate the adoption of the available technologies If the package of available technologies is introshyduced without special government programs farmers are expected to adoptthe technologies in the sequence given for each recommendation domain as outlined in Chapter V (Table 5) Adoption by recommendation domain would vary with those in the low risk aversehigh wealth categories adopting the technologies first groups such asSome the high risk averselow wealth old settlement farmers may never adopt any of the technologies
Implementation of a support program to increase the present cereal production in the WASAT would include
a) credit programs for the cash outlays required by farmers for fershytilizer and animal traction
b) farm mnagement information especially on efficient utilization of animal traction and fertilizer from the extension service
c) development of the input and product markets
thrustA main of the support program would be to select the technologieswithin each recommendation dolvin that farmers would most likely adopt
described Ta|IlAfirst (as in 5) and provide the economic incentives and pre-conditions for farmers to adopt the technology Once farmers become acquainted with the technology the next technology would be supported in a similar manner and so on until the total technology package was adoptedAppropriate economic incentives and pre-conditions would ensure that techshynology adoption proceeded as quickly as possible so that all the farmers could adopt the total package in the shortest possible time
66
To facilitate new-technology introduction some of the potential typesof research and extension institutional support programs are mentioned below
Priorities for Extension and Local Governments
The highest priorities for extension and local government agencies involve focusing on the soil fertilitywater retention technologies of manshyual tied ridging diguettes and dikes complex fertilizers animal traction and the mechanical ridge tier These technologies should be put forward on demonstration fields (using local farmer participation where appropriate) individually and as packages for each of the recommendation domains
There is a role for local government agencies in the construction and maintenance of large dikes and barriers to regulate the speed of rainfall runoff at the village level Within each region individual households would either construct tied ridges andor diguettes--whichever is the most appropriate for the area Where diguettes are used assistance from local government agencies may be required for correct contour placement
A critical role will have to be undertaken by extension agencies to ensure that the appropriate preconditions exist for animal traction adopshytion The preconditions of shorter learning curves for both the farmer and draft animals and higher utilization rates can be facilitated by animal traction programs Extension agencies could be involved in training farmshyers (technical operation and animal maintenance) and in the training of draft animals until a draft animal market develops Shortening the learnshying curve will itseli increase utilization rates which can be further increased by an appropriate complement of implements including the mechanshyical ridge tier
Priorities for On-Farm Testing
The prototype IITA mechanical ridge tier requires further modificashytions at the engineering level to reduce its weight and awkwardness and increase its adaptability for hook-up with a wide range of cultivatorplow equipment (Nagy et al 1986a) Other possibilities include an automatic tripping device and even new design concepts which need to be rigorously field tested with farmer participation As modifications and new design concepts are developed they must be made available to the extension system and local manufacturers and provisions made for information feedback to the on-farm testing agencies The mechanical ridge tier is an implement that can be made locally and every attempt by the local extension agencies to provide prototype copies to local manufacturers should be undertaken Locally-made mechanical ridge tiers enable location-specific adaptations arising from a local manufacturerfarmer interchange
Priorities also include further on-farm testing of diguettes and of modifications of diguettes and barriers Further on-farm testing across the WASAT of raw and acidulated rock phosphate from all the major rock
67
phosphate deposits in the WASAT is required to evaluate the agronomic and economic feasibility of this technology
Priorities for Experimental Research Stations
On-station crop improvement programs require a change in the presentemphasis on screening and selection under high management conditions--manshyagement conditions much higher than can be provided by WASAT farmers in the intermediate run Thus crop improvement programs in the WASAT should conshycentrate on developing varieties that show stability over time and exhibit a response curve that exploits moderate management levels Selection must be focused on resistance to important pests and diseases as well as producshytion superiority under varying levels of soil productivity and available soil moisture--all of which contribute to production stability This change in crop development goals requires new screening and selection proshycedures and an increased interdisciplinary effort between on-station and on-farm research
The designing of labor-saving devices for fertilizer applicationplanting and other field operations should be further studied for both manual and animal traction farmers where applicable Research on water retention methods other than tied ridges or diguettes is required for those areas where these two technologies are not effective especially on the sandier soils characterizing much of the Sahelo-Sudanian zone
CHAPTER VII
SUMMARY
Whole-farm modeling was critical in identifying the potential effect of new technologies and in evaluating the seasonal labor bottleneck As onshyfarm trials produce more technologies that pass the yield and profit criteria whole farm modeling analysis will become increasingly important to identify the interactions of technology components and estimate their potenshytial impact at the farm level
A major contribution of the Purdue farming systems research project was not the identification of the individual constraints but rather a study of their interconnected nature It is necessary for farming systems research projects to concentrate on the well-known synergistic nature of agricultural inputs and not be satisfied with minimum cost input changes which also have minimal effects on yields or profits
The seasonal labor constraint has been stressed as the principal barshyrier to agricultural development in the WASAT and in other semi-arid areas in Africa However a more agronomic orientation to the analysis of the water requirement and 1oil fertility problems was necessary The combined effect of improved water retention increases in soil fertility and overshycoming the seasonal labor bottleneck with the mechanical tied ridger had a substantial impact on farm income Since the combined effects are much larger than the individual effects it is unfortuuiLte that farmers tend to adopt one input at a ime Governmental support of the combined practices appears to be necessary to facilitate their combined introduction
(0 References
Ames Linda L 1986 A preliminary report on the evaluation of new techshynologies in Burkina Faso Mimeo Department of Agricultural Economics Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Andrews D J 1986 Current results and prospects in sorghum and pearlmillet breeding Sixth Agriculture Sector Symposium January 6-10 World Bank Washington DC
Andrews D J S B King J R Witcome S D Singh K N RaiR P Thakur B S Talukdar S B Chavan and P Singh 1985 Breeding for disease resistance and yield in pearl millet Field Crops Research 11241-258
Anderson Frank M and John L Dillon 1985 Farming systems research at the IAPCs and other international arenas International Livestock Centre for Africa (ILCA) Addis Ababa Ethiopia
Anderson J R J L Dillon and B Hardaker 1977 Agricultural decishysion analysis The Iowa University Press Ames Iowa
Anderson J R J L Dillon and J B Hardaker 1985 Socio-economic modelling of farming systems Approaches to Farming Systems ResearchACIAR FSR Workshop 12-15 May Hawkesbury Agricultural College Richmond NSW Australia
Andrews D 1986J Current results and prospects in sorghum and pearlmillet breeding Paper presented at the Sixth Agriculture Sector symposium 6-10 January World Bank Washington DC
Barlow C S Jayasuriya and E C Price 1983 Evaluating technologyfor new farming systems Case studies from Philippine rice farms International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) Los Banos Laguna Philippines
Batiano Andre Ugo A Mokwunye and C A Banante 1985 Agronomic and economic evaluation of alternative phosphate fertilizer sources in Niger In Appropriate technologies for farmers in semi-arid West Africa H W Ohm and J G Nagy (eds) International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Beets W C 1982 Multiple cropping and tropical farming systems Westview Press Boulder Colorado
Binswanger Hans P 1984 Agricultural mechanization A comparativehistorical perspective Washington DC World Bank Staff Working Paper Number 673 The World Bank
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Binswanger Hans 1980P Attitudes toward risk Experimental measureshyment in rural India AJAE 56280-85
Binswanger Hans P 1978 The economics of tractors in South Asia An analytical review International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) Agricultural Development Council New York
Burns Melissa 1985 Paper submitted to USAIDOuagadougou as the ecoshynomic analysis component of the SAFGRAD II USAID design team
Byerlee Derek M Collinson et al 1981 Planning technologies approshypriate to farmers Concepts and procedures International Center for the Improvement of Corn and Wheat (CIIMYT) El Batan Mexico
Byerlee D L Harrington and D L Winkelmann 1982 Farming systemsresearch Issues in research strategy and technology design American Journal of Agricultural Economics 64897-904
Byerlee Derek and Edith Hesse de Polanco 1986 Farmers stepwise adopshytion of technological packages Evidence from the Mexican AltiplanoAmerican Journal of Agricultural Economics 68(3)
Centro International de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT) 1979 Annual report beans Cali Colombia
Collinson M P 1981 A low cost approach to understanding small farmshyers Agricultural Administration 8433-50
Collinson M P 1982 Farming systems research in Eastern Africa The experience of CIMMYT and some national agricultural research services 1976-1981 International Agricultural Development Paper No 3 Michigan State University East Lansing
Dagg M and J C Macartney 1968 The agronomic efficiency of the NIAE mechanized tied ridge system of cultivation Expt Agric 4279-294
Dancette C 1977 Agroclimatologie app]iqu~e A l 6conomie de leau en zone sah~lo-soudanienne ISRACNRA Bambey mimeo
deDatta S K K A Gomez R W Herdt arid R Barker 1978 A handbook on the methodology for an integrated experiment-survey on rice yieldconstraints International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) Los Banos Philippines
Diuhl L and L Sipken 1985 The development of mixed cropping techshynologies in northern Ghana In Appropriate technologies for farmers in semi-arid West Africa H W Ohm and J G Nagy (eds) Internashytional Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
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Dillon John L 1976 The economics of systems research Agricultural Systems 15-22
Dillon J L and J R Anderson 1985 Concept and practice of farming systems Mimeo Department of Agricultural Economics and Business Management Univerity of New England Armidale NSW Australia
Dillon J L and P Scandizzo 1978 Risk attitudes of subsistence farmers in northeast Brazil A sampling approach American Journal of Agricultural Economics 60425-35
Doster D H B A McCarl and P R Robbins 1981 Purdue crop budget model B-96 EC-541 Agricultural Economics Department Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Dugue P 1985 Soil preparation in the Sudan-Sahelian zone Prospects and constraints Tn Appropriate technologies for farmers in semishyarid West Africa H W Ohm and J G Nagy (eds) International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Eicher Carl K 1983 West Africas agrarian crisis Paper prepared for the fifth bi-annual conference of the West African Association of Agricultural Economists Abidjan Ivory Coast
FSUSAFGRAD 1983 FSUSAFCRAD 1982 Annual Report International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Fussell L K and P G Serafini 1985 Crop associations in the semishyarid tropics of West Africa In Appropriate technologies for farmers in semi-arid West Africa H W Ohm and J G Nagy (eds) Internashytional Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Gebisa Ejeta 1986 Breeding sorghum hybrids for irrigated and rainfed conditions in the Sudan Proceedings International drought symposium on food grain production in the semi-arid regions of Sub-Saharan Africa Nairobi Kenya
Ghodake R D and J B Hardaker 1981 Whole-farm modeling for assessshyment of dryland technology International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRlSAT) Patancheru Andhra Pradesh India
Hardaker J Brian Jock R Anderson and John L Dillon 1984 Perspecshytives on assessing the impacts of improved agricultural technologies in developing countries Australian Journal of Agricultural Economics 2887-108
international Fertilizer Development Center 1985 Fertilizer research program for Africa The fate sources and management of nitrogen and phosphorous fertilizers in Sub-Saharan Africa Muscle Shoals Alabama
72
Jaeger W K 1983 Animal traction and resource productivity Evidence from Upper Volta Paper presented at the third annual farming systems research symposium Kansas State University Manhattan Kansas
Jaeger W K and J H Sanders 1985 Profitability of animal traction Field study in Burkina Faso In Appropriate technologies for farmers in semi-arid West Africa I W Ohm and J G Nagy (eds) Internashytional Programs in Agriculcure Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Kang B T C F Wilson and T L Lawson 1984 Alley cropping A stable alternative to shifting cultivation International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) Ibadan Nigeria
Kowal J M and A H Kassam 1978 Agricultural Ecology of Savanna A Study of West Africa Oxford University Press Oxford England
Lang M G R P Cantrell H W Ohm and S Sawadogo 1984 FSUSAFGRAD 1983 Annual Report International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Lang Mahlon C Ronald P Cantrell and John H Sanders 1983 Identifyshying farm level constraints and evaluating new technology in UpperVolta Staff Paper Department of Agricultural Economics Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Lang Mahlon G Ronald P Cantrell Herbert W Ohm and Sibiri Sawadogo 1984 FSUSAFGRAD 1983 Annual Report International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Mann Charles K 1978 Packages of practices A step at a time with clusters Studies in Development Middle East Technical University Ankara Turkey
Martinez Juan Carlos and Jose Roman Arauz 1984 Developing appropriate technologies through on-farm research The lessons from Caisan Panama Agricultural Administration 1797-114
Matlon P J 1985 A critical review of objectives methods and progress to date in sorghum and millet improvement A case study of ICRISAT Burkina Faso In Appropriate technologies for farmers in semi-arid West Africa H W Ohm and J G Nagy (eds) International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Matlon Peter J 1983 The potential for increased food production in semi-arid West Africa Paper presented at the IFPRI-University of Zimbabwe Conference on Accelerating Agricultural Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa Victoria Falls Zimbabwe 29 August - 1 September
73
Matlon Peter J 1983 Technology evaluation Five case studies from West Africa In Coming full circle Farmers participation in the development of technology International Development Research Council (IDRC) Ottawa Ontario Canada
Matlon P J and D Spencer 1984 Increasing food production in Sub-Saharan Africa Environmental problems and inadequate technologicalsolutions American Journal of Agricultural Economics 56671-76
McCarl B A 1982 REPFARM Design calculation and interpretation ofthe linear programming model Station Bulletin No 385 AgriculturalExperiment Station Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
McKee Catherine 1984 Methodological challenges in analyzing the houseshyhold in farming systems research Intra-household resource allocation In proceedings of the Kansas State Universitys 1983 Farming SystemsSymposium C (ed)Flora Kansas State University Manhattan Kansas
McMillan Della 1979 Agricultural development and migration in three villages outside Kaya Upper Volta Department of AgriculturalEconomics Purdue University W Lafayette MimeoIN USAID Contracts AFR-C-1257 amp 1258
McNamara R S 1985 The challenges for sub-Saharan Africa Sir John Crawford Memorial Lecture November 1 Consultative Group on Internashytional Agricultural Research Washington DC
Muleba N F Brockman and 1985D Kagne Variety development for associated cropping In Appropriate technologies for farmers in semi-arid West Africa H W Ohm and JG Nagy (eds) International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Nagy J G and HW Ohm 1986 FSUSAFGRAD 1985 Annual Report Internashytional Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Nagy J G L L Ames and H W Ohm 1985 Technology evaluation polshyicy change and farmer adoption in Burkina Faso International Programsin Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Nagy J G H W Ohm L L Ames and L D Schaber 1986a Analysis ofthe IITASAFGRAD mechanical ridge tier International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Nagy J G H W Ohm and Sibiri Sawadogo 1986b Burkina Faso A case study of the Purdue UniversitySAFGRAD farming systems project Intershynational Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiaila
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Nicholson SE 1982 The Sahel A climatic perspective Club du S-Ihel Joint CILSS and OECD publication
Nicou R and C Charreau 1985 Soil tillage and water conservation in semi-arid West Africa In Appropriate technologies for farmers insemi-arid West Africa H W Ohm and J C Nagy (eds) International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Norman D W 1982 Socioeconoimc considerations in sorhgum farming sysshytems In Proceedings Sorghum in the Eighties International CropsResearch Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics Patancheru A P India
Norman D MW D Newman and I Ouedraogo 1981 Farm and villageproduction systems in the semi-arid tropics of West Africa An intershypretive review of research ICRISAT Research Bulletin No 4International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics(ICRISAT) Patancheru Andhra Pradesh India
Ogungbile A 0 1980 An evaluation of sole-crop production technology on small farms in northern Nigeria under different farm power sources A multiperiod linear programming approach PhD dissertation Iowa State University Ames Iowa
Ohm Herbert W and Joseph G Nagy (eds) 1985 Appropriate technologiesfor farmers in semi-arid West Africa Proceedings of a workshop April2-5 Ouagadougou Burkina Faso IPIA Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana (English and French)
Ohm Herbert W Joseph G Nagy and Christopher Pardy 1985a FSUSAFGRAD 1984 Annual Report International Programs in AgriculturePurdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Ohm Herbert W Joseph C Nagy and Sibiri Sawadogo 1985b Complimenshytary effects of tied ridging and fertilization with cultivation bymanual and donkey and ox traction In Appropriate technologies forfarmers in semi-arid West Africa H W Ohm and J G Nagy (eds)International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Paulino L A and John W Mellor 1984 The food situation in developingcountries Two decades in review Food Policy 9291-303
Pieri C 1985 Food crop fertilization and soil fertility The IRAT experience In Appropriate technologies for farmers in semi-arid West Africa H W Ohm and J G Nagy (eds) International Programsin Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Pinstrup-Andersen Per and Peter B R Hazell 1985 The Jrpact of theGreen Revolution and prospects for future Reviewsthe Food International 11-25
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Reeves Edward B and Timothy Frankenberger 1982 Socio-economic conshystraints to the production distribution and consumption of sorghummillet and cash crops in North Kordstan Sudan Report No 2INTSORMIL Departments of Sociology and Anthropology University of Kentucky Lexington Kentucky
Rodriguez M 1982 Rapport Annuel 1982 Programme dagronomie du mais de IITASAFGRAD Ouagadougou Burkina Faso SAFGRAD International Institute of Tropical Agriculture
Roth M P Abbott JH Sanders and L McKinzie 1986 An applicationof whole-farm modeling to new technology evaluation Central Mossi Plateau Burkina Faso International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Ruthenberg Hans 1980 Farming systems in the tropics Oxford Univershysity Press New York
Sanders John H 1984 The evolution of farming systems research Towards where Department of Agricultural Economics Purdue Univershysity West Lafayette Indiana
Sanders John H and John K Lynam 1982 Evaluation of new technology on farms Methodology someand results from two crop programs at CIAT Agricultural Systems 997-112
Sanders John H Joseph G Nagy and Barry Shapiro 1986 Developing and evaluating new agricultural technology for the Sahel A case study in Burkina Faso International Programs in Agriculture Purdue Univershysity West Lafayette Indiana
Sanders J 1985H and M Roth The development and evaluation of new systems of agricultural production Some field model results from Burkina Faso for tied ridges and fertilization In Appropriate techshynologies for farmers in semi-arid West Africa H W Ohm and J G Nagy (eds) International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Saunders Margaret 0 1980 Farming systems research unit working papersNumber 1 Agriculture in Upper Volta The institutional frameworkNumber 2 Local ecology population and ethnic groups in Upper Volta Number 3 The Mossi farming system of Upper Volta International Proshygrams in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Sawadogo Kimseyinga 1986 An analysis of the economic and sociodemoshygraphic determinants of household food consumption in OuagadougouBurkina Faso PhD dissertation Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
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Sawadogo Sibiri Joseph G Nagy and Herbert W Ohm 1985 Cerealsshycowpea associations in Burkina Faso In Appropriate technologies for farmers in semi-arid West Africa H W Ohm and J G Nagy (eds)International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Simmonds Norman W 1984 The state of the art of farming systems reshysearch World Bank Washington DC
Spencer D 1985 A research strategy to develop appropriate agriculturaltechnologies for small farm development in Sub-Saharan Africa In Appropriate technologies fer farmers in semi-arid West Africa H W Ohm and J G Nagy (eds) International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Stoop W A C M Pattanayak P J Matlon and W R Root 1982 A strategy to raise the productivity of subsistence farming systems in the West African semi-arid tropics In Sorghum in the Eighties Proceedings of the International Symposium on Sorghum Vol 2 Internashytional Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) Andhra Pradesh India pp 519-526
Troll C 1966 Seasonal climates of the earth The seasonal course of natural phenomena in the different climate zones of the earth In World maps of climatology ME Lindsberg et al (eds) New York Springer Verlag
World Bank 1981 Upper Volta issues study Washington DC
World Bank 1985 Desertification in the Sahelian and Sudanian zones of West ifrica Wampshington DC
Wright J and M Rodriguez 1985 Trap project tied-ridging with animal power 2nd of project report Maize Agronomy Program IITASAFGRAD No 39 USAID Ouagadougou Burkina Faso
Wright Peter 1985 Water and soil conservation by farmers In Approshypriate technologies for farmers in semi--irid West Africa H W Ohm and J G Nagy (eds) International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana
Zandstra H G E C Price J A Litsinger and R A Morris 1981 A methodology for on-farm cropping systems research Internatinnal Rice Research Institute (IRRI) Los Banos Laguna Philippines
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APPENDIX 1
Administrative Report
In December 1978 Purdu University was awarded a two year contract with the US Agency for International Development to establish and operate a farming systems research unit in Burkina Faso as one of the components of the Semi-Arid Food Grain Research and Development Program (SAFGRAD)
This contract AFR-C-1472 had several mandates
1 Analyze small farm conditions and application of new technologies to those conditions
2 Formulate strategies regarding development and application of small farm relevant technology
3 Develop recommendations regarding physical research priorities and
4 Design help organize and analyze farmer field trials and studies as a means of performing the above
After several extensions the contract was amended in 1985 to reflect an additional set of objectives
1 Complete the transfer of the farming systems research methodology and techniques gained under this contract to national research organizashytions in the SAFGRAD countries
2 Finalize analysis of empirical research results
3 Finalize and publish guidelines for the methodological analytical or organizational and operational conduct of FSR in the SAFGRAD region
4 In conjunction with the SAFGRAD coordination office complete the groundwork for a West African regional FSR network
The termination of the project occurred on June 30 1986 Field activities in Burkina Faso were maintained through March 31 1986
The body of this report provides a description of the achievements of the project in terms of its mandate This section is the administrative report covering the implementation of this contrast
Contractor staff were provided logistic support by USAID in accordance with local AID procedures this included housing and utilities furniture household equipment and medical facilities to our long term staff In addition two vehicles were provided to our team for the duration of the project These vehicles were financed outside our contract but from SAFGRAD project funds
Initially the Purdue University team comprising an agricultural economist agronomist and rural sociologist were to be provided office
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space at the Kamboinse Research station outside the city limits of Ouagadougou At the onset the FSU office was established in Ouagadougou then moved to Kamboinse however because the vehicles provided were not very reliable and transportation problems for local hire staff created major problems the office was relocated in Ouagadougou in agreement with SAFGRAD and USAID The FSU team continued to closely work with the ICRISAT and IITA teams who had responsibility for other resetrch components of the SAFGRAD program
At Purdue University a steering committee composed of the departments heads of Agronomy Agricultural Economics and SociologyAnthropology was established to guide activities of the FSU It frequently met to evaluate progress discuss issues relevant to the project and to formulate overall strategy for achieving project objectives
Technical coordination and backstopping for the project was maintained on the Purdue campus during the entire project period Dr Wilford H Morris provided this service from 1978 to June 1983 and Dr John H Sanders from July 1983 to termination On-campus administrative and logistic support was provided by the Office of International Programs in Agriculture under the directorship of T Kelley White and D Woods Thomas Other administrative staff responsible for project activities were Dr James L Collom associate director IPIA and Mrs Katy Ibrahim administrative assistant for the FSU project
In addition Dr Thomas was a participant of the SAFGRAD Technical Advisory Committee (TAG) and Consultative Committee (CC) of the SAFGRAD which met yearly in Burkina Faso These committees were a channel for review of all SAFGRAD activities in WestCentral Africa
During the seven and a half years the FSU project existed a total of nine long-term staff were on site in Burkina Faso for a total of 225 person months (PM)
Paul Christensen agronomist acting chief-of-party February 1979 to December 1981 - 33 PM
Richard Swanson rural sociologist October 1979 to July 1983 - 46 PM
Ram Singh economist and chief of party April 1979 to Macch 1981 - 24 PM
William Jaeger economistcomputer analyst December 1981 to June 1983 - 19 PM
Ronald Cantrell agronomistchief of party February 1982 to January 1984 - 23 PM
Mahlon Lang economist February 1982 to April 1984 - 26 PM
Herbert Ohm agronomistchief of party August 1983 to August 1985 -24 PM
Christopher Pardy economistcomputer analyst December 1983 to Tune 1983 - 16 PM
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Joseph Nagy economistchief of party July 1984 to April 1985 14-
PM
In addition several short-term technical staff and consultants traveled to Burkina Faso for a total of 185 PM They are as follows
In 979 Kenneth Jones computer specialist at Purdue spent 50 PM to assist our in-country staff in organizing the data management That same year Ms Annie Buryer a sociologist spent 3 months in the field assisting our rural sociologist in setting up the village questionnaires In 1980 Herbert Butler rural sociologist spent 50 PM assisting in the analysis of the collected research dava In 1981 Stan Cohen computer specialist and agricultural economist spent 4 PM in the analysis of socio-economic data Len Malczynski computer specialist also spent 75 PM in the field in organizing the data Iandiing systems Anne-Marie Kaylen MS candidate in the Department of Agricultural Economics spent eight 1PM in the field to collect data for her thesis
Wilford H Morris technical coordinator for the FSU spent 200 PM in the field to provide support to our in-country team
In 1983 Jon Brandt agricultural economist spent 50 PM in Burkina Faso to assist Kirnseyinga Sawadogo in the collection of data for his PhD Thesis In 1984 Charles Rhykerd agronomist and soil specialist spent 75 PM oking with our staff in collecting soil samples and providing agronomLc support to our staff John Sanders as on-campus technical coordinator spent a total of 100 PM in the field working -ith the field economists
Purdue administrative staff also traveled to Burkina Faso during the existence of this project for a total of 45 person months
PM
T Kelley White acting director IPA 50 Paul Farris Head Agricultural Economics Dept 25 D Woods Thomas Director IPIA 150 Katy Ibrahim Administrative Assistant FSU 100 John Sanders Technical Coordinator 75 James L Collom Associate Director IPIA 50
Purdue University also conducted an internal evaluation of project activities in Burkina Faso in 1984 Members of the team who spent one week in-country were
Bernard Liska Dean School of Agricul-ire William Dobson Head Agricultural Economics Department Marvin Phillips Head Agronomy Department D Woods Thomas Director and Associate Dean International Programs in Agriculture
Sawadogo Sibiri participated in the On-Farm Experimentation Workshop University of Harare Zimbabwe (co-sponsored with CIMMYT) February 6-24
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1984 the East Africa Agricultural Economics Program CIMMYT Nairobi Kenya October 27 to November 6 and in the evaluation of FSR programs with ACPOs in Senegal February 24 to March 1
Three Burkinabe staff enrolled at Purdue University for additional long-term training
Paul Compaore Agricultural Economics MS 1983-1985 Baya Toe Agricultural Economics MS 1983-1985 Kimseyinga Savadogo Agricultural Economics PhD 1979-1986
All have returned to Burkina Faso Dr Savadogo as a professor at the University of Ouagadougou Paul Compaore and Baya Toe are working in the Burkinabe Ministry of Agriculture
All of these educational activities contributed significantly to quality and dependable data collection and team spirit In addition these --aining activities were a significant factor in the transfer of host country technical and research staff to the national agricultural research program IBRAZ
Training for US graduate students was also made possible throughthis project Ms Anne-Marie Kaylen spent eight months in the field colshylecting data for her MS thesis in agricultural economics Also three graduate students funded under the PurdueINTSORMIL project spent eight months each in Burkina Faso working with our staff in support of the project while collecting data for their field research These were Michael Roth PhD Kimseyinga Savadogo PhD and Ann Bukowski MS Under FSU auspices William Jaeger developed his PhD dissertation on the economics of animal traction in Burkina Faso
The Farming Systems Unit project cooperated in the conduct of two regional workshops In September 1983 in cooperation with ICRISAT and IRAT a regional workshop on farmers participation in the development and evaluation of technology was held in Ouagadougou The proceedings of this workshop were published by che International Develpoment Research Centre In April 1985 the FSU in conjunction with the SAFGRAD Coordination Office conducted a workshop on technologies appropriate for farmers in semi-arid West Africa The proceedings of this workshop (in English and French) were distributed widely by the Office of International Programs in Agriculture
Thirty-six research-based technical papers were written and disshytributed under FSU auspices (See Appendix 2 for a listing of these publications)
The Farming Systems Unit project was not without administrative andor logistical problems Included were such things as unavoidable delays in transfer of funds to the field inadequacy of in-country transportation arrangements imperfection in project design establishing FSU relationshipwith national agricultural institutions and international development assistance organizations internal and international political events and the lack of ex-ante long-term contractual and funding commitments Excellent cooperation among the US national regional and international organizations involved in the program made it possible to resolve such issues with minimal impact on project productivity
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Purdue University is deeply grateful to the OAUSTRC the SAFGRAD and its Consultative and Technical Advisory Committees USAIDOuagadougou AID Washington the government of Burkina Faso ICRISAT IITA and other enshytities for their assistance and cooperation in the conduct of this project Without such the objectives of this ambitious research could not have been attained
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APPENDIX 2
Publications List
1 FSUSAFGRAD Staff Questionnaire Utilises pour le Etudes Sur les Systems de Production Agricoles Dans Des Villages Echantillons de Haute Volta Farming Systems Unit Project International Programs inAgriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana January 1980
2 Saunders M 0 Farming Systems Research Unit Working papers (1)Agriculture in Upper Volta The Institutional Framework (2) LocalEcology Population and Ethnic Groups in Upper Volta and (3) TheMossi Farming Systems in Upper Volta International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1980
3 Bruyer A Towards a Use of Survey Materials Report on Zone of Zorgho Farming Systems Unit Project International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana May 1980
4 Christensen P J Observations on the Major Classification of Field Trials Used in Farming Systems Research Farming Systems Unit Project International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana January 1981
5 Christensen P J Rock Phosphate Fertilizer in Upper Volta Part 1 Preliminary Report on Policy Implications of Cereal YieldCharacteristics Farming Systems Unit Project International Programsin Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana April 1981
6 Christensen P J and R A Swanson SAFGRADFSU 1981 Research Programs Farfling Systems Unit Project International Programs inAgriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana April 1981
7 Cohen S Costs and Returns of Household Crop Production NedogoUpper Volta Department of Agricultural Economics Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana September 1982
8 Lang M R Cantrell and J IfSanirs Identifying Constraints and Evaluating New Techology in the Purdue Farming Systems Project in Upper Volta in C B Flora (ed) Animals in the Farming SystemKansas State University Manhattan Kansas pp 184-206 1984
9 Jaeger W K Animal Traction and Resource Productivity Evidence from Upper Volta in C B Flora (ed) Animals in the Farming ystem ibid pp 431-460 1984
10 Singh R D E W Kehrberg and W H M Morris Small FarmProduction Systems ii Upper Volta Descriptive and Productive Function Analysis Experiment Station Bulletin Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1984
11 Lang M G and 24 Roth Risk Perceptions and Risk Management byFarmers in Burkina F-aso Paper presented at the Annual FarmingSystems Conference at Kansas State University in 1984
83
12 Rhykerd C L Constraints and Research Needs for Livestock Production in Upper Volta International Programs in AgriculturePurdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1984
13 Sanders J H The Evolution of Farming Systems Research Towards Where International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1984
14 Roth M and J H Sanders An Economic Evaluation of AgriculturalTechnologies and Implications for Development Strategies in Burkina Faso International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana First presented at the Annual Farming SystemsConference at Kansas State University in 1984
15 Lang M G and R C Cantrell Accenting the Farmers Role Purdue Farming Systems Unit in P Matlon R Cantrell D King and M Benoit-Cattin (edited) Coming Full Circle Farmers Participation inthe Development of Technology International Developmernt Research Center Ottawa Canada pp 63-70 1984
16 Lang M H Ohm and R Cantrell Adaptability Analysis of Farmer-Managed Trials in Farming Systems Research International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1985
17 Lang M G Agricultural Production and Marketing Activities of Women in Burkina Faso International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1985
18 Lang M G Crop and Livestock Marketing Patterns in Burkina FasoInternational Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1985
19 Pardy C R Cereal Sales Behavior Among Farm Households in FourVillages in Burkina Faso International Programs i- AgriculturePurdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1985
20 Nagy J G and H W Ohm Economic Analysis of Tied Ridges and Fertilization in Farmer-Managed Sorghum Trials in Burkina Faso Paperpresented at the International Conference of AgricultLal Economists Malaga Spain 1985
21 Nagy J G L L Ames and H W Ohm Tecchnology Evaluation PilicyChange and Farmer Adoption in Burkina Fa Paper presented at the Farming Systems Symposium Kansas State University Manhattan Kansas 1985
22 Schaber L A Literature Review of Soil Fertility in the West Africa Semi-Arid Tropics (WASAT) International Programs in AgriculturePurdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1985
23 Sanders J H J G Nagy and B Shapiro Developing and EvaluatingNew Agricultural Technology for the Sahel A Case Study in Burkina Faso Submitted to Economic Development and Cultural Change 1985
84
24 Ohm H W and J G Nagy (Editcrs) Appropriate Technologies for Farmers in Semi-Arid West Africa International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1985 359 pages (also available in French)
25 Roth M P Abbott J Sanders and L McKinzie An Application of Whole-Farm Modelling to New Technology Evaluation Central Mossi Plateau Burkina Faso International Programs in Agriculture Purdue bniversity West Lafayette Indiana 1986
26 Diallo N N and J C Nagy Burkini Faso Access and Control of Resources in the Farming Systems Recent Legal Political and Socio-Economic Changes Paper presented at the Conference on Gender Issues in Farming Systems Research and Extension Gainesville Florida February 1986
27 Nagy J C and L L Ames Evaluation of New Technologies in Burkina Faso Using Whole Farm Modelling Paper presented at the Annual Conference of American Agricultural Economists Reno Nevada 1986
28 Sanders J H and B Shapiro Agricultural Technology Development in Burkina Faso in Chapter 12 of Y Moses (ed) Proceedings African Agricultural Develompent Conference Technoloiy Ecology and Society California State Polytechnic Institute Pomona California 1986
29 Nagy J G H W Ohm L L Ames and L D Schaber Analysis of IITASAFGRAD Mechanical Ridge Tier International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1986
30 Nagy J G H W Ohm and S Sawadogo Burkina Faso A Case Study of the Purdue UniversitySAFGRAD Farming Systems Project forthcoming in the Florida Farming Systems Project Case Studies Series 1986
31 Ames L L A Preliminary Report on the Evaluation of New Technologies in Burkina Faso International Programs in Agriculture Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 1986
32 Annual Report (English) 1979
33 Annual Report (English) 1980
34 Annual Report (English) 1982
35 Annual Report (English amp French) 1983
36 Annual Report (English amp French) 1984
37 Annual Report (English) 1985
38 End of Project Report 1986
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Theses List
1 Kaylen A M Current Farming Conditions in Nedogo and Digre Upper Volta MS Thesis Department of Agricultural Economics Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana August 1982
2 Jaeger W K Agricultural Mechanization The Economics of Animal Traction in Burkina Faso Stanford University unpublished PhD thesis 1984 To be published as a book by Westview Press
3 Bukowski AS Performance of Grain Markets in Selected Areas of Burkina Faso MS Thesis Department of Agricultural Economics Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana May 1986 Utilized some of the data and research support from the FSU project in Upper Volta but was directly supported by INTSORMIL
4 Roth M An Econoimc Evaluation of Agricultural Policy in Burkina Faso West Africa A Sectoral Modeling Approach unpublished PhD dissertation Department of Agricultural Economics Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana May 1986 Utilized some of the data and research support from the FSU project in Upper Volta but was directly supported by INTSORMIL
5 Savadogo K An Analysis of the Economic and Socio-Demographic Determinants (E Household Food Consumption in Ouagaodugou Burkina Faso unpublished PhD dissertation Department of Agricultural Economics Purdvr University West Lafayette Indiana 1986
